


Westward Bound

by mega_natural



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Multi, Mystery, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-19 08:34:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 64,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4739822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mega_natural/pseuds/mega_natural
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fuko, a full-blooded inu youkai of mysterious origins, encounters the great Lord Sesshomaru while searching for clues to her lineage. He decides to claim her as his mate, but how will that be possible when she doesn't know the meaning of the word—and when she doesn't like him all that much to boot?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Blue Blur!

**Okay! So this is a story I just keep thinking about, so… Okay! This is set after the series end, but before Kagome comes back, if she does, I don't know. I've never seen the last season or read the last manga, so I can't really talk about that much, but it's not really about that anyway and I'm also claiming artistic license. So there.**

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon/demon aura. Daiyoukai- great demon. Moko moko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail.

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**Chapter 1: The Blue Blur!**

"Kaede!" A young fox demon, panting and frantic, burst into the old woman's hut.

Kaede looked up slowly from the brew she was mixing. It was a soothing tonic for the new mother just down the road in the village and it needed careful attention.

For a split second, she didn't recognize the demon standing spread-eagle in her doorway, but one glance into his face set her to rights again. The old priestess patted her breast to calm her heart. It seemed that every time she looked at the boy, he had changed from the last glance! But, she knew, that was the way of demon children. Shippo had been growing quickly in the past year and was much taller than he had been not so long ago, but Kaede didn't believe his face would ever change or harden, despite the loses he'd suffered.

"Shippo." The old woman turned back to prod the fire under her pot. "What has ye home before midnight? I thought ye were out breaking the village girls' hearts?"

The lad turned pink, but then flung his arms out violently as if to fling his embarrassment away. "Please, Kaede! There's no time to tease me now! A really strong demonic aura is approaching the southern farmlands! It's coming right for us!"

She stilled. "Why didn't ye say so, boy?!" Kaede got to her feet as quickly as she could and began gathering her weapons.

"I just did," the fox demon muttered petulantly, but then he seemed to regain his lost urgency. "I'll go get your horse! Some of the warriors already left-"

"What?" Kaede snapped. "Do they even know what they run toward? The fools! Hurry, Shippo!"

"Yes, Grandma Kaede!"

In moments, the old woman was astride her horse and on the outskirts of the village, giving instructions to the remaining guards. Just as she turned to go, she shouted over her shoulder, "Stay here, boy! Help protect the village!"

The young fox demon took a few running steps after her. "But shouldn't I be where the fighting is?"

"No! Ye may be a demon, but you are still a child! Stay here!"

"But-"

"Boy, do as I say!" When Shippo deflated and turned away from her, the old woman shook her head in frustration. The boy had poor self-esteem, and though she was impatient to be on her way, she didn't want to hurt him, so she softened her voice. "Stop that pouting. Ye are not useless, Shippo. Should I fail to stop the demon at the farmlands, you and the remaining guards need to protect the people of this village. Do you understand?"

The red-haired boy faced her and she felt his youkai energy spike as he nodded resolutely. "Okay, Grandma Kaede, I'll protect them! I promise!"

The old woman wheeled her horse around and charged toward the south with twenty or so warriors following after.

As soon as she left his sight, Shippo's aura waned and he clinched his small fists in worry. He wanted to go with her! If something happened to her, he'd be all alone! He quickly shook this thought away and ran to the nearest hut, then scrambled up the side and jumped onto the roof so he could see farther. Though he could sense that the really strong aura hadn't yet reached the farmlands, he couldn't really tell how close it was, so he needed to watch in case Kaede… in case..

Furiously, he rubbed his eyes to get out the dust that must be in them. He shook himself. "I gotta keep it together! Gotta keep it together!"

Shippo stood on the wood-panel roof for a short while, diligently keeping watch and listening to the villagers prepare themselves for whatever was to come. No one called to him while he watched, maybe because they thought he was concentrating, but he really wanted someone would stop and talk to him! He couldn't take all this waiting and waiting! He'd kept his eyes trained on the south for so long, they stared to ache. The aura he'd felt before was just on the edge of the farmlands, and it was still heading for the village, only slower now. Had Kaede made it there yet? Was she fighting? Shippo sniffed the breeze blowing against his face, but didn't smell any blood. Maybe the demon would turn back before it met the village warriors. Maybe no one would have to fight today. Again, Shippo had to rub the dust from his eyes. If only Inuyasha were here! If he were here, Shippo wouldn't have to worry about Kaede fighting demons! But, the boy shook himself and trained his eyes on the south again. He knew he couldn't rely on Inuyasha, he was never around when they needed him anymore. He had to be the one to protect everyone now. "Gotta keep it together! Gotta keep it together!"

Just then, the aura shrank, as if it were a balloon losing more and more air. It shrank and shrank until it seemed to disappear. What luck! Kaede had defeated it! The young kitsune smiled, relieved. He must have misjudged the demon's power.

"Well, that was nerve racking!" He sighed and shook his head, still smiling to himself as he leapt from the roof back onto the dirt road. "I was worried for nothing!" He started trotting toward the south, wondering what kind of demon it had been. He laughed to himself, nearly drunk with relief. Maybe its carcass would be in the field and he could stand on it to impress the girls in the village. He _was_ the one to sense it first, after all, and he'd saved everyone by sounding the alarm...

He'd barely taken ten steps toward the south when the aura appeared again, not nearly as big but moving a thousand times faster than it had been. He didn't even have time to think before it crossed most of the farmlands, and in the distance he spotted a blue blur heading right for him.

Horrified, he stumbled back, turning toward the village and looking for the other guards. "It's coming!" he shouted. "Everybody! The demon is coming! It's-!"

_Here,_ he thought as he looked over his shoulder. In the second he'd turned away, the blur in the distance had reached the edge of the fields and the youkai aura was now not only something he could sense. He could _feel_ it touching his skin. He only had another second before it would be right in front of him. The boy didn't know what to do! He couldn't think passed the fact that it was _here_ , passed Kaede and the others, which meant that they hadn't been able to stop it. They had barely even slowed it down. He wanted to rub his eyes again, but there was no time.

Shippo stood his ground in the middle of the road leading into the village and stretched out his arms, standing between the approaching demon and his home. "Halt!" he shouted, trying his hardest to sound scary, powerful, and capable. The word came out sounding like a squeak.

But the demon stopped anyway.

Shippo stared for a long second, stricken silent with surprise and confusion. The blur had concealed a female inu youkai only a couple feet taller than him, wearing a blue silk kimono that barely came to her knees. It was tied with a wide pink-and-red striped ribbon that was fashioned into a large bow, which rested against her back. The demon's flamboyant appearance alone wouldn't have shocked him so bad, but then there was her face. She had markings, two blue, ragged stripes on each cheek. Her dark-brown bangs hung over her brow and into her green eyes, and her long hair was in a braid that almost reached passed her bottom, but what caught Shippo's eye was the dog ears nestled in the hair on top of her head. They were just like Inuyasha's, only they were a different color and much bigger.

When the ears twitched, Shippo's focus came back to the moment and he noted the wicked double-headed spear lashed to her back and gulped. Size and appearance didn't count for much with demons, and just because she was a dog demon didn't mean she wasn't going to try and slaughter everyone! Shippo tensed his body and bared his fangs. He wouldn't let that happen.

"Y-you're not welcome here!" he cried, taking what he felt was a threatening fighting stance. "Leave or face my wrath!"

The female demon tilted her head to the side and then began walking toward him.

Shippo trembled and squeaked, "I'm-I'm warning you!"

When she kept coming, he gritted his teeth and cocked back his arm. "FOX FIRE!" he shouted and sent a ball of magic flames spiraling toward her.

She caught it easily and the flames evaporated in her hand, not even leaving a mark.

Shippo stumbled back, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his next weapon. "SPINNING TOP!" he shouted, flinging it.

Again, the demoness plucked his weapon out of the air, which would have been great this time, but the top didn't transform! Shippo felt like he was going to faint, but he didn't run away. Maybe if she took long enough ripping him to shreds, most of the villagers would have time to get away.

"St-stay back! I'm w-warning you!" he shouted, waving his arms frantically, shutting his eyes so he wouldn't have to see his death coming.

The female youkai got right in front of him. "Hey, calm down, kit. I'm not going to hurt you. I just need directions."

Shippo shuddered, squeezing his eyes shut tighter. It was worse when they pretended they weren't going to kill you. "I said, st-stay back!"

"No, really. I just wanted to ask a couple of questions." He felt her get even closer. "Do you live here?"

He growled.

"Was that a yes?" She sighed. "You're scared stiff, aren't you? Okay, what do you want me to do? Do you want my weapon? Will that make you feel better?" There was some rustling and then he felt her back away.

Shippo dared to open one eye and then the other. The female demon had laid her spear on the ground in front of him and had taken a few steps back. The blades didn't have any blood on them—in fact, now that he thought of it, she didn't smell like blood at all. The young fox demon started to reach for the spear, but then narrowed his eyes, remembering the blur that she had been moments before. "Back up some more," he ordered.

She did, and when he thought she was far enough, he grabbed the spear. The power pulsing through the spear barley fazed him. He'd picked up Tetsusaiga before, after all. But, he recognized that the female demon had just handed over a very powerful weapon.

"Better?" she asked. "I just wanted to ask some quick questions, and then I'll leave."

Shippo looked up at the demon, saw her ears again, then looked into her eyes and suddenly didn't feel afraid at all. Whoever this was, wherever she'd come from, she wasn't like most of the people that he'd come in contact with. She really wasn't going to kill anybody, which meant— "What happened to the warriors in the fields? You didn't hurt them? Didn't you have to get passed them?"

"What, that mob of humans, waving weapons around? The one that had the old miko with them?" Shippo nodded and then the demoness laughed and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "They seemed a little hostile. I didn't think they were likely to talk to me, so I just went around them. They started chasing me, though, so they'll be here soon."

The boy stepped forward hopefully. "You swear not to hurt anyone?"

She tapped her index and middle fingers to her forehead once in a strange salute. "Scout's honor."

He wrinkled his nose in confusion. "What?"

"I swear," she said with a smile, and Shippo smiled back.

Not long after that friendly exchange, the old miko arrived at her hut and slowly dismounted her horse with the help of one of the warriors before dismissing him so that he could go check on his family. All of those who had gone to fight in the farmlands had been relived and frankly surprised to find their homes and families intact, but none were more surprised than Kaede to hear what had happened after the demon had gotten passed her wards and her warriors. Shippo had subdued the demon and made it agree not to attack the village? Kaede shook her head, not believing the story a guard had told her for a second. The aura she'd sensed out in the farmlands had been powerful, not the strongest she ever had the misfortune of encountering, but more than young Shippo could handle. Something strange was going on and the old woman was not at all sure what she would find inside her hut, where she could feel the two youkai auras.

She pulled aside the curtain covering her doorway and then snorted at the scene inside. It seemed that if they didn't intend to destroy her village, visiting demons always found a way to eat her food. Shippo was sitting across from the demon, smiling and offering more tea, more rice, more dried fruit and meat, acting as if there was nothing to fear, and the demon sipped from her cup and nibbled from Shippo's proffered plate as if she was perfectly at home in a human hut. Kaede shook her head and moved to check the brew over her fire. It was still quite warm, which was good.

"Hi, Grandma Kaede!" Shippo called around a mouth full of rice when he noticed her.

Kaede blinked with surprise when the female dog demon stopped eating the rice and bowed to her. The old woman supposed she was too accustomed to Inuyasha's rudeness to expect any different from an inu youkai.

"Hello, Lady Priestess," the demoness said. "Please excuse me for avoiding you earlier. You and your friends didn't seem in the mood to talk."

"Yes, well," the miko murmured as she stoked the fire under her tonic. "Most demons of ye ilk aren't in the mood to talk either."

Kaede heard a soft sigh from her. "I get that a lot in these lands. It seems demons around here don't respect life so much as in other places."

"And which other places do ye speak of?" the priestess asked suspiciously, turning to face her.

The demon shrugged. "Here and there. I've found pockets of peace in many places, not a great number of them, but they exist."

Deciding to be direct, Kaede asked, "What be ye purpose here, demon?"

Shippo piped up, "She's looking for Inuyasha!"

The old woman felt a small amount of alarm. It was silly, the hanyou could take care of himself, but she felt protective of him and didn't want to send trouble his way. "Why would ye be searching for Inuyasha?"

The demon smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head. "I'm not really looking for this _Inuyasha_ everyone's talking about. I'm looking for _any_ dog demon, and every human I ask around here seems to think I should find this guy. They think I look like him, something about my ears. Apparently, he's very popular."

Kaede frowned. "Why would ye be searching for other dog demons? Don't ye know any?"

The demon shook her head slowly. "No, Lady Priestess. I wasn't raised with dog demons. I don't know any and I'm trying to find one in hopes that they will know something of my family."

"That is a very strange tale," the old woman said dubiously.

"Kaede!" Shippo wailed. "Please, don't be mean to her! She really doesn't know any dog demons. She comes from the Far North."

Kaede frowned. It was widely held that there were no dog demons in the Far North, and that they would never go there, so that begged the question of how this particular dog demon got there in the first place. Looking at Shippo's face, though, made it hard to continue an interrogation, so she played along. "If ye be in search of information about ye lineage, Inuyasha is hardly the one to help ye. He is a half-demon, and he too was raised away from most other dog demons. I'd wager he would know as much as ye seem to. The dog demons of the West would be a better choice."

"The West, right." She assumed a contemplative pose. "I've heard that from a few people now. Head west, they say. As if that's the easiest thing to do in the world."

"Isn't it?" Shippo asked.

She shook her head, cheeks growing a little pink. "It would be, if I weren't me…"

"Explain, demon," Kaede said, turning back to her fire.

She sighed. "I lack a sense of direction. It's worse than that, really. If someone points me north, I will eventually be heading south, and if someone points me west, I will eventually arrive at the eastern sea. My feet tend to lead me in circles, and I never suspect that I'm heading the wrong way until I get to somewhere I've already been. I've tried everything I can think of to stay on track, but I always lose my way eventually. I'm certain if I didn't have a sense of smell, I wouldn't have been able to find _this_ place at all. I met a traveling musician that visited here recently and he told me to follow his scent back. I know that if it had rain since he'd been here, I would have been lost all over again."

"That's horrible," Shippo said, worried about his new friend. "How do you get home if you are always lost?"

"I don't," she replied, swirling her tea. "I don't really have a home."

"But what about the friends you meet in your travels?" Shippo’s tail twitched nervously. "How would you ever visit them?"

The dog demon smiled and took something from a pocket in her kimono. "Here."

Shippo took the rock she offered out of her hand and inspected it. To his surprise, it pulsed with magic, _fox_ magic. "What does it do?"

The demon frowned at him. "Don't you know?"

Shippo squirmed with embarrassment. "Um, uh, yeah! I know!" She titled her head as she looked down at him, and he blushed and cringed. "N-no, I don't really know. I don't know a lot of fox magic. My dad didn't finish teaching me before he died."

"Oh,” she said softly. "I'd thought as much from your attacks earlier." This made Shippo cringe again. She reached over and took the stone in order to show him the engraved symbol. "This is a summoning mark. If someone holds this stone and says 'Fuko!' it will send out a beacon that I can follow to whoever possesses the stone."

"Oh. What does 'fuko' mean," Shippo asked curiously.

She laughed. "That's my name!"

"Oh!" Shippo grinned and bowed. "Please excuse me, Fuko, in all the ruckus earlier, I didn't make introductions." The young fox demon stood and bowed again. "My name is Shippo the fox demon." He gestured to Kaede, who looked up from her tonic. "This is the priestess, Lady Kaede."

The demon got to her feet and bowed gracefully. "It's a pleasure to meet you both. I am Fuko, a dog demon from the North."

Shippo's tail was shaking in excitement. "It's nice to meet you, too, Fuko!"

Kaede sighed, and took the brew off the fire to cool. "Well, then. Shall we have some more tea while we talk?"

Once everyone was settled again, Shippo asked, "How do you know fox magic, Fuko?"

"As a child, I met a kitsune youkai who taught me all that he knew, and since then, I've been teaching myself, with a little help now and then."

"You… you can teach yourself?!"

"You can teach yourself a lot of things as long as you know the basics." Fuko looked Shippo over and then nodded. "That fox fire you used is a big part of those basics. If you knew a little more, practice and imagination would be all you needed to make yourself a pretty advanced magic user."

"I can transform, too!" Shippo said proudly.

"Well! That does take a little more skill. Tell me, when you do it, is it just illusion, or can you do things that you couldn't otherwise?"

Shippo thought about it. "I can make myself a balloon or a bird and fly…"

"That's good." Fuko said encouragingly. "Now if you had someone to teach you the finer details of fox magic-"

"You could teach me, couldn't you?" Shippo asked, jumping up.

Kaede looked toward the female youkai and watched as she seemed to consider it. "Well, I suppose I could, but I don't know. My power isn't like yours. Some of the higher level magic I can do isn't exactly fox magic because I don't have the right kind of energy to do it the same way a fox demon would, just as when a monk or a priestess makes a barrier, they don't make it the same way a demon would." Fuko looked over to the old woman for conformation. "Right?"

"Yes," Kaede said. "That is correct."

"Will you teach me, Fuko?" Shippo squeezed his hands together under his chin and begged. "I want to be stronger so I can protect my village." When she didn't immediately agree, his eyes grew wide and his lower lip pouted, his tail swirling invitingly. The boy looked as adorable as demonly possible.

"Oooh…" Fuko seemed stricken by Shippo's puppy-dog eyes, and Kaede had to stifle a laugh. She had grown immune to the look, mostly, but it always worked on a newcomer. "Shippo… I don't know if the villagers would want me to hang around, even if it only took a few days to teach you."

Shippo quickly turned to Kaede. "The villagers would let Fuko stay if you said it was safe, Grandma Kaede."

"So they would, child, but how am I to know _’tis_ safe?"

Shippo pouted harder. "Fuko wouldn't hurt anybody! Would you, Fuko?"

"No, I wouldn't," the demoness said. "But how is she to know that for certain, Shippo? I can't expect someone who doesn't know me to vouch for me to an entire village."

Shippo flopped down into his seat again, growling and pulling his hair in frustration. "Oooh! Ah, um! Uh! But what if- um! Oh!" The boy suddenly leapt to his feet again. "What if you made another necklace, Kaede? Like Inuyasha's? Then if Fuko tries to hurt anybody, you could stop her!"

Fuko's eyes went wide as she spoke, "Stop me how, exactly?"

Kaede shook her head. "The spell he speaks of wouldn't work on a full demon like ye, Fuko. Besides, I haven't the ingredients for subjugation beads."

Fuko whistled, impressed. "Subjugation beads, huh? But, don't those only work if the wearer has a strong tie to the user?"

"Indeed," Kaede murmured, both impressed with and concerned about her show of knowledge.

Shippo whined, "But- but…"

"But," Kaede echoed, sipping her tea casually, "I suppose, if Fuko was willing to wear a subduing spell while she was here, she could be allowed to stay and teach ye."

Much to Kaede's surprise, Fuko agreed instantly. "That sounds reasonable."

"Yes!" Shippo, now practically buoyant with happiness, leaped across the space between them and hugged Fuko. "Thank you, Fuko!"

"But—what of ye search, dog demon?" Kaede asked, sputtering.

"I've been looking for years. What's a few more days to help out a little fox?"

Fuko ended up spending over two weeks in the village near the outskirts of the Forest of Inuyasha. In that short amount of time, Shippo learned several new tricks and improved greatly on the ones he already knew. Kaede didn't find one reason to use the wooden bracelet she had fashioned to hold the subduing spell. By the first week's end, Kaede could tell the young kitsune had formed a special attachment to the female inu youkai—he followed her everywhere and brought her presents like flowers and smooth river stones. Shippo's instruction time went much more smoothly than even he expected. It turned out that the boy was an avid student. Fuko encouraged him to write down what he could remember of her teachings every night so that, if he ran into problems with his magic later on, he could fall back on his notes. Sometimes, during his play with the village children, he would turn toward Fuko (she was always about somewhere) and wave for no particular reason. The demoness would always happen to look up in time to see the gesture and wave back. By the end of the second week, the other children got over their shyness and would watch Fuko teach, especially when she was demonstrating something new, and some of the adults would greet Fuko warmly when they crossed paths. She reminded them all of Inuyasha—because of her ears, mostly, since their personalities were certainly nothing alike—and also because of her goodness and strength. Many of the villagers grew accustom to begging favors and small chores in return for food or refreshments and Fuko seemed happy to oblige. She had become a strange fixture in the village, if not loved by all, then quietly tolerated.

On the sixteenth day of her stay, Shippo woke feeling hopeful. Fuko seemed really happy here and she was so nice that everyone liked her. Sometimes she could be a little weird, like when she insisted on sleeping on Kaede's roof even on cloudy nights or when she suddenly jumped into the river flowing through the village for no reason or when she called him 'Po' as if his name wasn't short enough already, but she was sweet and smart and strong and pretty and so fast! Sometimes all he could do was gape at her, she was so fast! Faster than Inuyasha and Shippo's cat demon friend Kirara and the wolf demon Koga combined! One day, she put him on her back to take him to a nearby cliff side so that he could practice different types of aerial attacks, and he had been so dizzy when they got there that they had to take a break before they even began! Everything around them had gone streaky and nauseating when she ran, and Shippo just couldn't figure out how she avoided running into everything. She'd told him that she was simply used to it, but he didn't know if just anyone could get used to moving like that.

Shippo hopped out of the hut and stretched his aching body. With his new training regiment, he seemed to be achy all the time, but Fuko had explained that all his activities were simply exacerbating his growing pains, whatever those were. All Shippo knew was that the ache was making him stronger, so he didn't complain. Much.

Turning around to face the hut, he looked up at the roof, and was only a little disappointed to see that Fuko was already gone. For the last few days, she'd been waking early to help the old ladies of the village wash clothes. Shippo wasn't sure why she liked to do this, seeing as the old ladies didn't give her any treats for it, but he supposed she liked to talk to them.

Almost unconsciously, Shippo looked toward the Forest of Inuyasha. Whenever Inuyasha returned to the village, he came out of those trees, and it was always as the sun rose in the morning after he had spent the night by the Bone-Eater's Well.

Thinking of the well always led to thinking about his absent friend who was like mother and sister to him. Shippo furiously rubbed his eyes as tears threatened. Sure, he missed Kagome, but it wasn't like she was dead! She was just stuck on the other side of the well, over in her own time, probably doing 'homework' and eating ramen and just being okay. He only made himself mad when he cried over her, because it wasn't like she was dead! It wasn't like that at all!

After a few moments, when the sun finished rising and Inuyasha didn't appear, Shippo headed for the riverbed where the clothes were washed. Kaede was already out of the hut, probably gathering herbs in the forest, so breakfast wouldn't be for a while. He distracted himself from hunger and sadness by focusing on his new teacher. He wanted Inuyasha to meet her. Shippo knew his friend would love Kagome forever, but he thought that if he met someone like Kagome, someone who was sweet and smart and strong, he would want to stay in the village instead of going off to wherever he went for weeks at a time. Shippo convinced himself that this was likely. He knew that wherever Inuyasha went for those weeks he wasn't here didn't make him happy. If only he could figure out how to get his friends Miroku, Sango, and Kirara to live here instead of in Sango's old demon-exterminator village. He sighed, because he knew _that_ wouldn't happen, and it was selfish of him to want that. He couldn't help it though. What Shippo wanted most in the world was for his friends to stay together.

"Hey, Shippo!" The young fox demon looked up, and waved to Fuko. She was walking toward him with a large basket of damp clothes in her arms. The old lady who she was carrying it for was grandmother to two of his friends and she waved to him before pointing Fuko toward her house, seeing as she had started to pass it by.

Shippo ran up to them just as Fuko was saying goodbye to the old lady and he said good morning to her before following Fuko away. "Well, what are we doing today, sensei?"

"Well." Fuko glanced down at him and then away quickly as she walked toward Kaede's hut. "I was thinking we should just hang out today, Shippo." The boy grinned, about to suggest games and other activities, but Fuko continued, "I've actually taught you all I can for now. Until you're a little bigger, all there's left to do is practice what I've showed you and build up your stamina. Just focus on your notes and keep working, and then you'll be quite the formidable little kitsune."

Shippo slowed and then finally stopped, compelling Fuko to stop too.

Fuko continued to stare toward Kaede's hut and also toward what she thought was the western horizon. When the little fox took a few steps forward and hugged her leg, she knew that he knew that she would be leaving tomorrow. Still, he begged, "Can't you stay a little while longer, Fuko? Until Inuyasha comes back?"

She reached down and stroked a hand through the boy's hair, which she'd become used to doing to encourage or comfort him. He reminded her so much of her childhood friend that it ached. It was part of the reason had she stayed so long in the first place. "I wish I could stay, Shippo, but I have to go. I've had to go for a couple of days, now."

The boy looked up at her tearfully. "But, why?"

Fuko smiled at him and then knelt down beside him to hug him around his shoulders. He was stiff for a second, which was so like a little boy his age to behave that she laughed. "Remember that summoning stone I showed you when I first got here?"

Shippo sniffled and returned her hug. "Yeah…"

"Well," she said, drawing back. "Someone very special is calling me with one right now. I can feel it. I have to go, and then I must keep searching." Shippo shuddered in her arms and she kissed a tear from his cheek. "I'm going to give you one, you know. A summoning stone. We can make it together, right now. That way I can always find my way back to you, Shippo."

The boy bit his lip and sniffled again, but then nodded in agreement. "Okay… okay!" He seemed to brace himself, and Fuko felt his aura spike. "Alright. S-so, if I have my stone, I can call you whenever I want? And, you'll come?"

"Absolutely!" she said. "The stone that we will make will work a little differently than the one I showed you before, but, yes."

"Okay…" he said with a shuddering sigh and then he quickly squirmed out of her hug. "Where… where should we start if we're making a summoning stone?"

"Breakfast." She stood and started walking toward Kaede's hut again. "We need the energy."

After breakfast, (during which Kaede revealed that she _already knew_ that Fuko was leaving tomorrow, which made Shippo have a mini fit that included stomping his feet and demanding to be treated like an adult that could handle bad news maturely) Fuko led Shippo to the river, where he picked out a rock. Though he was still feeling a little peeved about the fact that she told Kaede she was leaving _days_ before she told him, he wanted to make this summoning stone really special and he agonized over the choice for an hour while they waded around in the cool water. After he found an almost perfectly round stone and dubbed it his, they got out of the water and sunned themselves on the bank of the river. Then, they raced over to the grassy field where they practiced every day. She beat him, of course, but he liked that she never let him win in a serious contest. She'd told him at least a thousand times over the past two weeks that he had to earn victory.

"Now, hold up your rock for me, please."

Shippo held it up and watched with fascination as Fuko carved into it quickly and efficiently with her youkai energy, which was guided by her claw. Seeing her claw glow blue like that reminded him of Inuyasha's deadly half-brother and Shippo felt a little alarmed.

"Now," she said, "hold it tight and think of me."

Shippo didn't find this hard at all, he thought of how they had trained together, and played together, and how they explored the village together, learning things about the people that lived here that Shippo never had never known before. Fuko wrapped her hands around his after a few seconds and the stone in his hands suddenly became hot to the touch, but then it cooled just as quickly.

"There."

Shippo opened his hands and looked at the glittering, gold-colored sphere he'd pulled from the river. It felt heavier, maybe. It could have been his imagination. "Thank you, Fuko."

"Oh," she murmured, "it's really more for me than it is for you. I would love to visit this place again. You and Kaede and the rest—you've all been so kind. And I never got to meet your Inuyasha."

Shippo looked up quickly. "The next time he comes back, if I called you…?"

"Of course—but, listen." Fuko placed her hand under his, bringing the stone to his eye level. "This _particular_ stone is just for you, Po. Like the other, if you hold it up and say 'Fuko!' I'll come to you, but that's just for emergencies. If you're not being killed, then the proper thing to do with the stone is to carry it with you and think of me every now and then. I'll come as soon as I can and I'll know I'm coming for a visit, not a fight. Remember, calling my name is for emergencies. Carry the stone and think of me when you miss me too much to bear and want me to visit." She grinned at him. "Even if you don't miss me at all, don't forget to summon me sometime, okay?"

Shippo smiled widely and nodded. "Okay, Fuko."

Despite the fact that Shippo receive his summoning stone while the day was still young, nighttime approached on swift legs, almost seeming as fast as Fuko. Dinner went by without a whisper and the hours after dark were spent casting shadow puppets against Kaede's wall and telling funny stories. It wasn't until Kaede announced that it was time to go to bed that Shippo realized that his last day was gone.

Even though there was a crystal clear sky that night, Fuko slept inside with him. That made Shippo feel better, but he still didn't sleep much. After a night of tossing and turning, the sight of the brightening sky outside made him sick.

When Fuko was packed and preparing to leave, a group of villagers came and wished her well. "Goodbye! Goodbye! Good luck, Fuko!" they called and all Shippo could do was give a little wave. She started walking toward the west with the sun at her back. After only a few steps, the little kitsune couldn't stay still anymore.

"Fuko!" He ran after her and then slowed to a stop beside her where she’d paused. "Uh. Can I walk you to the cross roads?"

"Of course." She smiled at him and he took her offered hand without thinking.

Then he blushed when he heard some of the village boys jeering him. "Hey!" Shippo called over his shoulder. "Shut up, you guys!" Not wanting to seem like a sissy in front of them, Shippo let go of Fuko's hand until they were out of sight. "Sorry," he muttered, taking her hand again.

"I understand." She laughed at him and Shippo didn't quite understand why he blushed harder.

He wanted to spend these last few minutes telling Fuko how much he would miss her, but—much to his chagrin—she distracted him with talk of the group of little girls in the village who liked to watch him practice his fighting. Shippo didn't know why everyone kept saying they had a crush on him, because they didn't! They were just being nice!

She gave him a kiss at the crossroads. It was just on the forehead, but it reminded him of what his mother would do, and that reminded him of Kagome. Tears came, and this time Fuko wiped them for him. "I'll miss you," she said. "You're a good friend, Shippo."

"I'll miss you, too." The words came out a bit stiffly. This wasn't all he'd wanted to say, but he was afraid to tell her that he loved her in case she really only felt affection for him.

Somehow, she knew. "I love you, Shippo."

He looked up at her then, eyes shining with gratitude, a little toothy grin on his face, tail wiggling with joy, and pointed ears going bright pink at the tips. Fuko knew that she would see him like this when she remembered this place.

"I-I l-l-love you, t-too, Fuko!"

She gave him another kiss, this time on the cheek. "Summon me sometime, okay?"

"I promise!"

Shippo soon found himself waving goodbye to a blue streak in the distance and then to nothing at all. He gave a small shuddering sigh when he lowered his hand and quickly turned around to walk back to the village. He had even more reason now to hope that Inuyasha came home soon.

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**Next time...**

**Chapter 2: Crossed Paths and Crossed Swords**


	2. Crossed Paths and Crossed Swords

**Yay! I really appreciate your interest, everybody! Sorry for being a slow updater. I got a beta, ArcticPuppet, so expect big things. Okay, here's another chapter.**

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon/demon aura. Daiyoukai- great demon. Moko moko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad?

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**Chapter 2: Crossed Paths and Crossed Swords**

"Goodbye! Farewell! Good luck! We will miss you! Goodbye!"

Fuko lifted her hand and gave a small wave and a smaller smile before turning and running away. Of course, she didn't know where she was heading, but she didn't need to know. At that moment, all she wanted was to get away. Trees flashed passed her eyes and wind whipped her face as if in punishment, but the demon pressed on with an even more furious speed. After a few minutes of flawless, comforting movement, she couldn't hear those words anymore, nor smell the salt of her friends' tears. They were gone. She was alone and that was normal.

Coming to the summit of a small mountain, the demoness stopped abruptly and stood unmoving against the powerful gust of wind that rushed passed her. Looking down at the green valley below reminded her clearly of that morning just ten days ago when she had done the exact same thing. Fuko thought back to the little fox demon that had been the one to say goodbye to her that day. She missed him, as she missed everyone that stole a little bit of her heart. Children like him made her feel it worse.

But, today, her heartache's name was Miki, a human orphan, whom Fuko had guarded until they found a village that gave the girl reason to hope. This was many years ago. Miki lived in this little valley now, with her husband and children, who were darling little things that smelled strange and liked to pull ears. Fuko was happy for her, she truly was, but the intervening time between their meetings was getting longer and longer. It had been years since she'd seen them last. The eldest child, who had taken his first steps between her hands and his mothers, was now taller than Fuko. Miki didn't need her demon protector anymore in this peaceful valley, and the inu youkai was left to miss the child that the woman had been.

Fuko turned away from the bittersweet view below her and crossed the peak, moving in a west-feeling direction. She wouldn't think of the not-so-distant future, of the moment when Miki would call her and she would arrive to fine a stranger on her deathbed. She let that inevitability remain a vague understanding in the back of her mind. She would let today's pain stand alone, because, one way or another, children made her feel it worse.

Of course, Fuko wasn't one to dwell on her misfortunes. She found it difficult to remain sad when she was running, and, because this comprised the majority of her time, she was never sad for very long. Most people liked her because of this. Grins were natural to her, smiles crept across her lips when she wasn't thinking, and laughter often floated on the wind that was whipped up in her wake. Even being eternally lost didn't dampen her high-spirited personality, and she thought it was probably a blessing that she loved new places. Whether on a sea of sand, waist deep in snow, surrounded by ancient trees, on the cusp of a mountain top, or in the middle of an ocean, where ever she found herself, a smile was the first expression to come to Fuko's face, usually followed by confusion, but first came her smile.

This (usually) helped keep strangers from running when she stopped to ask for directions, but not today.

Seeing the familiar contours of a farm's field under her feet, Fuko stopped instantly and cast about for the farmer. About 50 yards to her left, a few humans continued to work the land, not having noticed her at all. Bracing herself for any sort of reaction, she gave a little shout and waved. "Hello! Excuse me!"

First one and then the others straightened from their task and looked at her. At first, they didn't seem to know what to make of her, with her colorful dress and her strange facial markings, but one human- the same one that stood first- started shouting. "Demon! That's a demon!"

"Hey! Which way is west?" she called, but they were already starting to panic— she could see their eyes glazing over even at this distance— so she shrugged and continued in a west-feeling direction.

This process was repeated several times, once more in a field, twice on a road, three times at a village, before Fuko happened to stop on the edge of a swampy area. The smell was a little unpleasant, but she still smiled as she inspected her surroundings. She found them satisfyingly gloomy. It was a well-fortified swamp, she noted. Trees stood abreast of each other, none more than six inches from the next, and thick brambles more than filled the empty space. The only way in that she could see was the tunnel. Tree limbs, nearly black with decay, formed the small tunnel into the marsh, which was dimed further by the moss and vines binding the overhead canopy together into a think, impenetrable blanket. This entrance seemed deliberately formed, and it followed that someone would be around to help Fuko on her way, so of course she stepped forward.

When the trees shifted and the entrance to the tunnel closed behind her, she stopped to turn and stare. That was odd. In fact, it was so odd that it was starting to seem vaguely familiar.

"Hello?" she called into the twilight of the tunnel.

Someone laughed, the sound low and menacing. "You've walked right into my trap, you silly dog. Run before I crush you!"

Fuko brightened. She could sense an aura directly ahead. She tilted her head to the side and said, "You seem familiar. Do I know you?"

The laughter came again, just a tad higher in pitched than last time. "You know me only as demise personified! Tremble before me, lowly cur! Leave while you can!"

Fuko's left ear twitched. "Rodney?"

The laughter choked off and there was a cold silence. "…No."

Fuko's right ear twitched. "Rodney?"

Silence. "…No."

Fuko took a step forward. "Rod-"

"Yes! It's me, damn it!" A male raccoon-dog in a black-and-white striped jacket leapt out the gloom. "How many times have I told you that my name is Roudane? Ruu-dan-eeh!"

Fuko shrugged at the shorter demon. "That's what I said—Rodney."

The raccoon dog stomped and then fell forward, face-planting, which made Fuko smile. When he stood back up, he demanded hotly. "What are you doing here?"

She grinned, "I’m talking to you!"

The raccoon-dog clamped his paws over his little ears, grimaced in frustration, and snarled, "Why have you come?"

"To ask for directions."

"Leave! Get out of my territory!" he shouted.

"Which way is west?" she asked politely.

"Back the way you came!" he howled.

Fuko reached over, gripped him by the scruff of his neck, and then shook him up and down rapidly, which, she found, was an efficient way to get directions from this guy.

"That way! That way!" he wailed, pointing straight off into the bramble and muck of the dense swampy forest.

Fuko dropped him. "That's due-west?"

"Yes." he hissed.

"Thank you, Rodney."

Fuko sprinted off, unheeding of the pure destruction she wrought as she tore through the bramble, ecstatic to be sure of her direction.

The raccoon-dog known as Rodney stared after her, drooping to the ground as the female youkai demolished his carefully cultivated swamp fortress, as she had done every time she found him. "Why me?" he whined, and then tromped off to find another place to live.

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The fluttering wings in the periphery of Rin's sight caught her attention and held it. She froze, not even daring to turn her head. The small human girl was rewarded for her patience when the delicate creature floated closer. She didn't blink. It came closer. She didn't breathe. It alighted on her wrist.

For an infinite moment the pretty creature rested with the utmost trust on her skin, and Rin slowly turned, trying to move so that her wrist would be visible to the daiyoukai sitting against the tree behind her. "Lord Sesshomaru!" she whispered-screamed. "Loooooook!"

Sesshomaru, the Great Demon Lord of the Western Lands, glanced at the insect crawling along Rin's wrist and nodded before letting his graze drift again. His concentration was disturbed barely a second later when Rin let out a wild shriek and began chasing the fluttering flash of color that was now escaping on the breeze. Sesshomaru watched, considering recapturing the creature for his charge, but didn't. Rin needed to run out the restless energy that threatened to bubbled over into the night and prevent her from sleeping.

As he watched, Rin ran back and forth, enthusiastically leaping into the air despite the fact that the butterfly flew much too high for her to hope to catch. Her determination impressed him as it had in many situations. He found himself wondering what made humans expend such energy straining for such unreachable heights.

Off in the distance, his servant Jaken shouted epithets at the ryu-beast Ah-Un, who was being difficult for him this day and so refused to carry him the rest of the way to the meadow where Rin played. Sesshomaru could smell the few things Jaken had managed to gather for Rin's meal, two small fish and some un-ripened fruits and he gave an imperceptible sigh. His vassal still had not learned to properly feed the girl and this failure was calmly noted for future reference. Perhaps the toad demon would receive a rock to the head today or a boot to the back tomorrow.

"Lord Sesshomaru, did you see the butterfly? Wasn't it beautiful?" Rin stood unsteadily and panted a few feet from him, her sweat making her scent a bit stronger.

"I saw it," he answered, and then looked out into the field. "There is another."

"I'll get it!" The child whirled and raced off, not even asking him where he'd seen it. She came back after a time with a single red daisy. "My lord, I brought you a flower!"

He suppressed a smile, knowing what was to come next. "Thank you, Rin."

"Of course, Lord Sesshomaru!"

Sometime later, Ah-Un walked into the meadow, settled himself in the grass, and then titled his two heads in greeting to the young human girl.

She waved at him. "Hello, Ah-Un! Oh, you're alone!" She ran over and patted the beast, then she wandered back over to the flowers, mumbling, "I wonder where Master Jaken has gone…"

Another short interval past before the toad's piercing voice rang out from further in the brush. "Milord! M-Milord, I have returned!"

By the time Jaken collapsed into the clearing, there were several small hills made of blossoms surrounding the daiyoukai and a single pile forming near the ryu-beast. Every bloom was gathered individually by Rin's careful hands.

Lifting his head weakly, Jaken cried, "I've completed the task you set out for me, milord!"

Rin placed another flower in the pile next to the trailing end of Sesshomaru's moko moko and then waved to him. "Hello, Master Jaken!"

"Rin, you foolish girl!" The small demon blustered as he leapt to his feet, apparently forgetting his extreme weariness. "Stop bothering Lord Sesshomaru with your silly flowers!"

No one paid any particular attention to Jaken as he ranted, and a minute into his speech, Sesshomaru stood, silencing the lesser youkai immediately. "Jaken, feed Rin." The daiyoukai strode off then, making his way into the trees.

"But- but, Lord Sesshomaru! Where are you going?"

He didn't bother to answer, much less turn back. Instead, he flicked a stone over his shoulder, which resulted in a somewhat satisfying cry of pain. There was a patch of berries that Rin favored about a mile up-wind, and he planned to supplement the child's meal. He had nearly reached them when he sensed it.

A large aura of vibrant youkai energy was heading directly for the clearing he had left behind, and though it was still a long way off, he paused and turned to face it. He could not yet tell what sort of demon was heading this way, but Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes and flared his own aura to ward it off.

Subtle annoyance flashed through his eyes when the creature did not change course or even seem to acknowledge his warning. He began to move back toward the clearing. In the mere split second it took for him to reach his stride, the aura was closer to the meadow than should have been possible. A silent snarl graced his lips as he immediately began to sprint, and he reached his followers first but with barely enough time before this strange trespasser would arrive.

"Jaken! Take Rin and go!" he snapped as he flitted passed them.

"Y-yes, milord!" They leapt on Ah-Un’s saddle and then the beast lifted into the air and flew over the tree-line.

Sesshomaru halted in the center of the flower-filled meadow and drew his sword, Bakusaiga. Flinging his immense power outward, he announced coolly, "Dragon Strike."

In answer, a torrent of crackling dragon-shaped energy ripped toward the trees, ready to rend the intruder asunder even as it arrived.

Inexplicably, the blurred figure that burst through the brush vaulted over the stream of energy, landed, and kept moving with the same wild speed like it had never been interrupted. Surprised and furious because of this surprise, Sesshomaru dashed into the path of the blur and loosed a deadly whip of youki. Again, the blur jumped, which wouldn't have saved it this time, but then, just as it was about to be wounded by the twisting whip, it curled and changed direction in mid-air. It landed deftly about twenty yards away from Sesshomaru and stopped moving. There stood a female demon in strange dress, and in that still second before her scent reached him, he saw her doggish ears and was immediately reminded of his half-brother.

It was vexing to be forced to think of the worthless hanyou.

The blade of Bakusaiga was raised again. "Die."

Another swing of his sword sent energy crashing through the air and when this was dodged as he expected, he was in the air above the female, launching another assault. Even as he was bringing his blade down for a clean kill, she flowed around it like water and came back to ground about fifteen yards away, not even seeming fazed by his missed attack's resulting explosion.

She smiled at him as she assumed a loose fighting stance and Sesshomaru inhaled her scent.

Pure, undiluted inu youkai, a century or so younger than himself, and not of his clan—no, certainly not of the West by her looks alone. Appearance-wise, she looked very different from all other dog demons he knew of—not as tall, not as lean, more rounded and somehow more feral with strange youkai markings. They were similar enough to his own to reinforce in his mind the fact that she was truly inu, and not just inu, but powerful besides.

As he was analyzing her presence, Fuko was casually unlimbering her dual-bladed spear from its holster across her back. She hadn't realized there was a demon this strong around, or else she might have compressed her aura to keep from being conspicuous. Now she figured she could stop her search for an hour or so, just to teach this stranger a lesson about attacking people without provocation.

"So?" she called as she twirled her weapon lazily. "Are we going to fight or what?"

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes. Now that he was sure she was a full-blooded demon, he did not wish to kill her as much, but her disrespectful tone could not be ignored, nor could he ignore the challenge of that weapon that she was waving around. Still, he would not rush in like an idiot, like that foolish mutt this female reminded him of might have done. He had attacked her first. She was defending herself, trying not to show weakness. He would quickly show her the danger of challenging him and then be on his way.

The battle began with a clash of auras, followed quickly by a clash of blades.

In a ballet of power, both dancers probed the other’s defenses in a lightning quick exchange of Fuko's attacks and Sesshomaru's counters, which flowed into one another at an alarming rate. Fuko swiped, connected with Sesshomaru's blocking sword, avoided his answering punch by dropping low and redirecting his momentum to the side, spun away to avoid a kick, swept at his legs with the shaft of her weapon in the same motion, bounced upward and to the side to avoid the hilt of his sword, brought her own blade up to redirect his next swing, again, again, again, spun to the side and swiped at his flank which was exposed, was blocked, avoided his claws and then his feet when he countered, vaulted over the broad-side swing of his sword, allowed her own momentum to carry her over his head, and then had to displace herself midair to dodge his return swing. Block, kick, block, jab, swipe, jabjabjabjabjabjabjabjabjab… Both realized it was a stalemate—neither of them could connect—and in the same motion, they rode the shockwave of their blades meeting and leapt back in the opposite direction from one another. There was only an instance's pause in the action before Fuko rushed back in and they were flailing away at each other's guard again.

She could barely see her own rushing attacks for the crackling power in the air. When he ramped up his youki, trying to suppress her without a fight, she'd been forced to match him. Now she was struggling to keep this fight from becoming deadly. Every time their weapons met, a flair of power radiated out from the impact in a starburst pattern. For now, this was little more than a light show, but it was quickly getting out of hand. Was this guy insane? It was as if he was really wanted to hurt her! Maybe she should take it up a notch…

Sesshomaru found himself snarling in the face of this frustrating female's defiance. The wavering after images that they left behind all across the meadow were starting to overwhelm his eyes, and with every attack they made more. She was quick, but it should not have mattered how fast she was with his youki raised to such morale-crushing levels. She should be on the ground, pleading with him to spare her life, not forcing him to dodge an array of jabs from her spear. This was no longer a matter of teaching her a lesson, it was a battle of wills that he did not intend to lose. He would not toy with her anymore…

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Jaken danced on the toes of his feet on the edge of the cliff Ah-Un had brought them to, staring worriedly at the horizon which was lit up with the display of power back in that silly flower-filled meadow.

"Arrrgh!" he cried, clutching his head and stomping his foot in frustration. "I can't just stand here when Lord Sesshomaru could be in trouble!" He whirled and, with giant tears in the corners of his eyes, shouted at Ah-Un, "You take me back there right now!"

The rightmost head of the dragon snorted and then the left head turned and indicated Rin with his snout.

"What are you talking about, you stupid beast? What could possibly get to her while she’s up on a high cliff like this?"

The creature vocalized and shook their heads in the negative.

Jaken jumped up and down, waving his weapon, the Staff of Two-Heads, in the beast's faces. "You do as I say and get me back to Lord Sesshomaru or I'll—AHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The right head had opened its mouth and blasted Jaken half way across the sky with a beam of youkai energy. It was in the direction of the battle, but whether this was by design or by accident, Rin couldn't tell.

" _That_ wasn't very nice, Ah-Un." she said, but then quickly relented and hugged the large ryu-beast's leg. "I hope Lord Sesshomaru and Jaken will be alright…"

Half way across the sky, the charred kappa youkai collided with a tree branch, snapping it with his impact, and then fell ungracefully into a prickle bush. After a moment of weak flailing, he struggled out of the offending foliage and staggered to his feet, eyes swirling dizzily. "Ahhhh…that… damn Ah-Un…"

A nearby explosion snapped him back into his senses. Tears appeared in the corners of his eyes again. "I'm coming, milord!"

Jaken race through the brambles. When he reached the meadow, he was not sure he'd found the right place. The whole area was torn asunder, flowers and grass gone, gouges dug deep in the earth, trees ripped in half, some up-ended with roots forlornly pointing toward the sky; it was as if this particular area had never been tranquil for one day in its existence!

But Jaken could sense and hear that there was a raging battle going on right in front of him, though he could not exactly see it. Lord Sesshomaru was moving so quickly! Jaken nearly shed tears at the excellence he was almost seeing before him. After images of his noble leader striking at a strange demon appeared to him after a few seconds of searching, but he knew they were seconds still behind the action.

Suddenly a deafening explosion shredded the ground right in front of him, kicking up a wave of soil that buried him. He shouted and struggled to the surface, and then used his staff to brace himself as he thrust his head out, body following. He tried desperately to see what was happening. There was a flash of light and then the two figures were flung apart, his leader landing gracefully across the muddy field from him and the attacking demon landing with its back to the waiting kappa youkai.

This was it, his opportunity to help! He brought his weapon up and shouted, "STAFF OF TWO-HEADS!"

Before more than a tongue of flame emerged from the old man of the staff's mouth, the strange demon turned and locked one wide green eye on the short green youkai. Jaken did not even have time to flinch. Before a ball of flame was created, much less sent forth to burn the attacker alive, the hapless kappa youkai had the staff ripped from his hands, was tossed into the air, and then struck with his own weapon with just the precise power and trajectory to send him shooting through the air—half way across the sky to be precise—back the way he had just come.

Fuko shaded her eyes and watched the lesser demon fly for a moment, then turned to the demon she'd been fighting just a second ago. "Was that yours?"

Sesshomaru watched impassively as Jaken reached the apex of his flight. "Hn."

"Okay…?" Fuko glanced down at the strange staff in her hand, ran her thumb over the polished wood, and then tossed it clear of the melee to free up her hands. "So, shall we continue?" She looked to the stranger and, for the first time, paused to really take him in.

He was tall with pure white hair hanging down to his knees and he was dressed in an impressively elegant kimono with flowers and hexagons in geometric designs. He looked… fit, powerful, and was maybe a little older than herself. His aristocratic face was colored with youkai markings—twin purple-red stripes on each cheek and, on his forehead, framed by long bangs, there was a blue crescent moon. _A blue crescent moon._ **_A blue crescent mo_** _—_

"H-hey!" Fuko hefted her spear and tossed it aside. It buried itself blade deep into a nearby stump. She put up her hands to show that she had effectively disarmed herself. "Are you-you're a dog demon, right?"

Sesshomaru had tensed when she lifted her weapon, but at the sight of her casting it away, he warily sheathed his sword. He would not to toss it around like a toy but he did not need to brandish it while she stood unarmed. If this was some sort of distraction, he felt confident that he could do without it for a moment. "I am," he answered, and then briefly considered why she would have to ask. He decided that she was used to seeing dog demons that looked more like herself and dismissing that information as irrelevant to their battle.

"That mark on your forehead—" She touched the same place on her face, through her obscuring bangs. "Someone told me, um, that the moon is the mark of the west. Is that right? Are you from the Western Lands?"

"I am," he said again, growing a little impatient. This was all painfully obvious information and he was more than ready to get on with the fight.

"Right," she murmured so softly that he was sure she was not talking to him. "Right, so…" The female began to approach him slowly, stride steady and sure, with her hands kept visible in a decidedly non-confrontational way. She behaved as if she were approaching a wild animal, which she was, as far as she knew. She had even begun to lessen the pressure of her aura, still keeping it at the same density in order to fend off his, but not keeping it so battle-ready. "I've got some questions I'd like for you to answer. Let's not fight anymore, okay?"

Sesshomaru could feel his fingers try to twitch, but he kept himself perfectly still. "You do not wish to finish?"

"No. It isn't important. We both know we're good fighters, right?"

_Not important?_ Sesshomaru mentally scoffed, and then visibly relaxed his stance into a more casual one. This was misleading, as he was still absolutely deadly. If this little female wanted to play a game of deceit against him, then she would find she had made a grave error.

Once she was about ten yards away, she dropped her hands. "Well. I…" She suddenly lifted her arms and Sesshomaru watched carefully, but all she did was lace her fingers behind her head. "Well… excuse me! This is unexpected, you know? I've been looking for… I don't know where to begin."

She turned and began to pace to the right. Sesshomaru carefully kept her in view, cognizant of the spear she had left across the field. Had it been a strategic placement?

When the female paced back to the spot her had been at before, he narrowed his eyes. This was getting tiresome.

"Well," Fuko said again, turning again to face the stranger directly. "I don’t know how to explain. What's your name?"

He didn't answer.

"Oh, sorry." She nodded, remembering a little of the demon etiquette she'd picked up in her travels. "I should introduce myself. I'm Fuko. What’s your name?"

He stared for a long moment before answering, "Sesshomaru, Lord of the Western Lands."

Fuko blinked, stopped herself from saying 'Aha!', and worked to tamp down her excitement. Just because he was in charge of the place didn't mean… "Lord Sesshomaru, have you ever seen this mark before?" She swept her hair back from her forehead with one hand and showed him the youkai mark there. She knew by heart what it looked like. A blue tear-shape—very close to the blue of his moon—with two curling swoops taken out of the middle. It was a flame. Or a spirit. Someone had told her once in no uncertain terms that it was a spiraled sea shell that had been cut in half. She didn't know for sure what it was, which was why she asked.

He glanced at it, gave a suspenseful pause, but then said succinctly, "No."

Slowly, she let her hand drop and long locks of dark hair fell down again. "Oh." She sighed, trying to shake immediate disappointment. "Well, do you think someone else from the West, one of your subjects, I guess, would recognize it? Someone older than you?"

He was quiet for a second before he replied, "I would not know."

"Right." Fuko scratched the back of her head. "Well, I guess I just have to go find out, huh?" With that, she turned her back on him and started to walk to her spear.

Sesshomaru watched her go, not sure what to make of this exchange, but then she paused and turned back to him.

"Hey!" She walked toward him quickly, coming closer than she had before. "Are you going home soon? I mean, to the Western Lands?" When he did not immediately answer, she waved her hands in a placating manner. "I'm not trying to get you to do any asking around for me, or anything like that. I was just wondering—could I travel with you? I'm not the best at finding my way around…"

Fuko stared at him as he stared at her, not looking at all pleased by the idea. He didn’t looked displeased either. He didn't really look like anything, she realized. If she hadn't seen him snarl mid-battle, she might have thought that he was incapable of expression. After a long while, when he still didn't answer, she began to wonder at his reasoning. Was it because she'd sent his kappa youkai friend flying? He hadn't seemed so upset when it was happening. Finally, she broke the silence. "I wouldn't be any trouble, you know. I'd just be there until you get to the Western Lands. You’d hardly notice."

He didn't seem to react.

A little frustrated, Fuko crossed her arms in front of her and settled in to wait for a reply.

After a few more seconds, he softly scoffed. "What makes you think that I would consider helping you?"

Fuko blinked, thought about getting offended, but then decided that not everyone did things out of the goodness of their hearts. He was well within his rights to expect compensation, but she was a little disappointed in the stranger. Which might have been unreasonable of her, but—what the hell—it was her opinion, right? She could feel how she wanted.

Nodding, she began to make her bargain. "As I said before, I wouldn't be any trouble to you. I can fend for myself. And I could help you while I’m around."

Did he narrow his eyes just a little bit? She wasn't sure. He said, "And what, exactly, would I need your help for?"

She shrugged at him. "Anything, I guess. I’m strong. I’m fast. You never know when you could use another demon around, right?"

"Hn." The daiyoukai hid his annoyance. Her aura was now at a completely non-threatening level and it seemed that she really had no intention of finishing their fight. If others were present to witness this, she would be seen as admitting defeat, but only in a decidedly unofficial way. He had loosed his Dragon Strike twice, in a lesser form of course, but still, she had not used any higher level attacks at all. She could later argue that she had called a halt to the battle because she did not think it worthwhile to continue. There was also the fact that neither of them had landed a hit on the other. This did not please him. While she had shown that she was adept at non-lethal combat, he was certain that he would easily overcome her in a true battle.

But, she apparently had no will to fight. She could not possibly be a challenge for him. It seemed that this was simply another instance in which he was destined to be disappointed by his opponent.

As for her traveling with him, he did not even have to consider. "No. Be gone."

Sesshomaru crossed the torn field, collected the Staff of Two-Heads, and then began moving toward the cliffs where Ah-Un had taken Rin.

"…No?" The female did not chase after him as many in her position had done before, but she did call out as he disappeared into the foliage. "Right! Okay, Lord Sesshomaru! I won't travel with you! Thanks!"

Sesshomaru nearly paused, but he continued on his way uninterrupted. It was strange that she would thank him for denying her, but it was not his concern.

Fuko waited for a few minutes after he left, not moving from her position, and then she compressed her aura, drawing it into herself deeply. Smiling slyly, she went to collect her spear, Chikyukiba. As she drew it from the wood of the stump, the blades flashed with energy. "Was that fun?" she asked it. The glow of power faded slowly. "It was fun for me."

She limbered her weapon and started following her new guide. He did not know it, but she had carved a little something into the wood of his kappa friend's staff during that brief moment it had been in her hand. The simple homing mark wouldn't draw anyone's attention and, if she was careful, he would never suspect that he was leading her west with every step he took.

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**Okay, yeah. Get ready for next time!**

**Chapter 3: The Friendly Stalker's Bargain**

 


	3. Chapter 3: The Friendly Stalker's Bargain

**Hi, it's been a while! I know what the difference between youkai and youki is now! Yay! Still some controversy over 'kappa'. The Inuyasha wiki I found says Jaken is a kappa youkai, which means 'water sprite'? and he looks like a toad and the anime calls him an 'imp' and a 'toad', sooo… artistic license!** **Okay, here's another chapter.**

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon. Youki- demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai- great demon. Moko moko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad.

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**Chapter 3: The Friendly Stalker's Bargain**

Fuko was not a very careful demon. At least, not around children.

With her youki compressed nearly to the point of pain, she scuttled forward the last few inches, waited a second, and then allowed herself to relax just a little. Stalking a demon like Lord Sesshomaru was a bit nerve-racking, especially with the heightened sensitivity he was displaying, but, for the inu female, it was absolutely necessary. The little girl among his followers was simply irresistible and once she was enamored with a child, she became preoccupied with making them smile.

It began on the third day of tracking the staff. By this time she had already deduced that the group ahead of her included the demon lord, the kappa youkai, a dragon-creature, and the human child. Though she was curious about the eclectic foursome, Fuko had made sure to keep herself no less than three miles away from the homing mark and hadn't thought of a reason to risk getting any closer until she scented the juice of the yellow berry wafting on the breeze. Sweet and tangy with just a little bite, a unique flavor that reminded her of warm, sunny days in a marshy green land she'd once crossed as a youth, the yellow berry was nothing short of a rare delicacy and Fuko had spent a sleepless night lamenting their decision to camp next to the berry patch, effectively keeping her away. That morning, when they began moving again, Fuko had tramped happily into the sweet-smelling area expecting to get a snack, but instead found, to her horror, that every single ripe berry had been picked and then half of the bushes had been stomped into the ground. She could not imagine what had happened to make this so, but she suspected that some fool had perpetrated a food fight and then the dragon must have stampeded through the small clearing. Fuko had shed a few tears in mourning, quietly said a prayer for the decimated bushes, and then continued to follow the homing mark. Strangely, even hours after leaving the berry patch, she had continued to catch whiffs of the fruit from up ahead. She almost assumed it was her wishful mind playing tricks on her, but she knew her nose was far too keen to fool. Someone had salvaged some berries, and Fuko had been determined to get some.

()()()()()()()()()()(That day…)()()()()()()()()()()

Steeling her youki against detection was a far more delicate task than gearing it up for battle, and doing so while using it to disperse her scent was even harder. If she hadn't been so well trained at sneaking up on the aura-sensitive, she was sure she would have been discovered already. As it was, Fuko didn't dare get closer than fifty yards to the blazing aura she knew belonged to the male inu youkai. It turned out to be more than close enough for her purposes. Her nose told her that the berries were near the river with the child and the dragon. Both the kappa and the inu youkai were in the forest, maybe hunting. After a moment of careful consideration, Fuko edged around the nexus of the powerful aura and moved carefully toward the river. She arrived in a fair amount of time considering that she couldn't use her speed to its fullness without alerting the demon lord to her presence.

Peeking out of the bushes, Fuko looked around, spotted the dragon beast, and then the child standing naked hip-deep in the rushing water. Fuko was a little surprised to see how small she was. She had imagined her to be older.

"Brrr!" the girl cried, flinging handfuls of the water into the air. She giggled. "It's cold, Ah-Un!"

Fuko smiled at the tinkling of her laughter. She sounded so bright, like a little ray of sunshine… Quickly shaking the thought away, Fuko cast about, spied a simple reed basket tucked safely at the edge of the trees, and moved closer. The demoness was well aware of her weakness for children and knew it wouldn't be good to dwell on how adorable this one was. She resolved herself to just get some berries and go.

In seconds, her objective was within her grasp, but when she saw how few berries were left inside the basket, guilt began to gnaw at her. What if this was all that the girl had to eat? Fuko looked to the river again, trying to gage how well fed the child was. She was thin, but not at all starving… Fuko sighed, thought for a moment, and then grasped upon a brilliant idea. Why not let the girl decide if she wanted to share?

She moved backward, deeper into the bush, and, working rapidly, began pulling leaves from the foliage. Using fox magic and the surrounding greenery, Fuko instantly fashioned another basket, smaller and neater than the obviously handmade one that held the berries. She placed her basket next to the berry basket and then broke a small twig from a fern to draw in the dirt with. When she was finished, there was a depiction of yellow berries above an arrow leading from the half-full basket to the empty one. Looking at her handiwork and then to the frolicking child, Fuko smiled and moved back into the bushes to do a bit more fox magic. After adding a little incentive to the bargain, she moved away from the baskets to wait.

A while later, Rin came charging out of the water and laid down on the rocky ground. She didn't much like bathing in the cold river, but Master Jaken had said that there were no hot springs nearby so she had to do it here. As the little girl lay in the sun to dry, she hummed to herself and wondered where Lord Sesshomaru was taking them. She almost sort of recognized the path they were taking, but she couldn't be sure.

"Ah-Un!" she cried, sitting up. "Do you know where we are going?"

Un opened his mouth and yawned while Ah drank from the water.

"Rin doesn't know, either." Slowly, the girl laid back. After a little while longer, Rin decided that it didn't really matter and climbed to her feet. As she yanked her clothes back, not caring that she was still damp, she said, "Okay, Ah-Un! I'm done!"

As she played a game with herself in which the rules were that she could only step on the darkest gray stones, Rin skipped over to the basket that she had left over by the trees. When she landed in front of it with a little flourish, she shouted, "I did it!" Then she looked over her shoulder at An-Un. Un titled his nose at her while Ah shook water out of his mane.

Rin looked down at the basket, reached for it with both hands, but frozen with her arms outstretched when she saw that there were two baskets! One of them was hers, it was brown and made from reeds, but the other was small and green and looked as if it had been patched together with leaves. Between the baskets, Rin could see that someone had drawn some pictures. A little alarmed, she looked around for who might have left the new basket, but didn't see anyone. Looking again at the green basket, she noticed that there was something inside. She reached in and pulled out a clay figure that looked a lot like Ah-Un. "Wow!" she said softly. It was really pretty! The clay Ah was yawning and the clay Un was stretching his neck. The figure even had little clay bows in its mane. The real Ah-Un didn't have bows—she looked over her shoulder to check. Rin put the toy Ah-Un on the ground on its feet and made it walk over to the brown basket while making little screech-y sounds like the real Ah-Un. As she did this, Rin noticed the drawings again. There were two arrows, one pointing to her brown basket and one pointing to the green basket. Above the arrow pointing to the green basket, there was a bunch of round lumpy things, and above the arrow pointing to the brown basket, there was a four-legged stick drawing with two long necks and two triangle heads. Rin thought this supposed to be Ah-Un, and if that picture was Ah-Un, then the round things might be berries! Again she looked around, but it was still only Ah-Un and her by the river.

Smiling, Rin poured some berries from her brown basket into the green one, filling it, and then put the toy Ah-Un into the brown basket. Looking into the trees, she shouted, "Thank you!" And then the girl ran over to her dragon friend. "Look, Ah-Un! It's you!"

Fuko smiled and retrieved her payment for the toy. The girl was waving the figurine in front of the dragon's noses, giggling. The female inu youkai knew that laughter would make the berries taste even better.

()()()()()()()(Present)()()()()()()()

Since then, Fuko had traded a clay human girl for a melon, a clay kappa youkai for some roasted potato, and a clay inu youkai for a couple of apples. This morning, when she'd passed through where the group had spent the night, she found the crushed inu figurine next to a sloppy basket filled with mushrooms. Fuko hated mushrooms, but she appreciated the thought, so that was why she was now risking detection in order to deliver a new toy to the girl whose name she had learned was Rin. Such an adorable name! So fitting to her small statue and cute little sideways pony-tail! Fuko steeled herself. This was neither the time nor the place to dwell.

Shifting slowly, Fuko brought forward the handmade basket with the toy inside and carefully pushed it into view of the tree that Rin was sleeping against. From her scouting, she calculated that this particular spot would be plain to the girl when she woke, but not immediately visible to Lord Sesshomaru, who was getting to be a real pain in the neck. Since the first exchange between her and the girl, the demon lord had been very, very watchful. Going undetected was getting very, very hard. Fuko had figured that the mushrooms that they left behind in their camp had been a trap, but well… she found children irresistible. Once the toy was in position, Fuko stealthily retreated, smirking to herself. Mission accomplished. She supposed that she might be a pain in that inu youkai's neck too.

And she was correct.

Sesshomaru growled softly to himself as Rin picked up the offending grass vessel. Not even the glimmer of an aura had appeared at the edges of his perception throughout the night. He had laid a barrier around the camp. Not even an ant should have been able to approach without detection. One had not. He knew every insect that moved around the small clearing, but he had no notion of exactly when that basket had appeared under the bushes on the northern edge. This deeply displeased him.

When Rin had shown him the toy Ah-Un five days ago, he had immediately seen the workings of fox magic on the clay. Once he had determined that it posed no threat to Rin and that it did not have any purpose other than to be a child's plaything, he had let her keep it. He then spent some time tracing back over the spot where the trade that the girl described had taken place and found little else but dirt drawings. The lack of a scent had told him it could not have been a lesser fox demon, a hypothesis that was supported by the fact that Ah-Un had sensed nothing. He did not know what a higher-level kitsune would want with a human child, but decided that it was unlikely to happen again.

Sesshomaru hated being wrong. The toy Rin had been there when he had returned from clearing the path ahead of a band of lesser demons. Again there had been no traces of the fox. Next, Rin came back from foraging with a toy Jaken. The real Jaken had been with her, left with instructions to be on the lookout for a fox demon. He received two lumps on the head for his ineptitude. When the great demon lord found Rin exclaiming over a toy version of himself, he had been coldly furious. Sesshomaru had been certain that no one was near them, but the girl told him she had seen a hand pull the basket of wild greens into the bushes and then replace it with her own two eyes. This had happened in the short window of time when he had left her for just a second to investigate an unusual smell. He had been no more than thirty yards away the entire time. When Rin had placed the clay inu youkai in his hands and he saw that the maker had added bows to its clay hair, he had crushed it. It had been unplanned, but he realized quickly that acquiring a new one would bring the fox within striking distance. When he told Rin that her fox friend would doubtless make her a new one, she had refrained from crying. The girl's tears made him uncomfortable, not that he would ever allow her to see that discomfort.

But, at least he had learned something from this failed stakeout. Sesshomaru knew now that the maker of the toys could not possibly be a kitsune, fox magic or no. No fox was powerful enough to pass unnoticed through his barrier. He immediately thought of the peculiar dog demoness when this occurred to him, but could not make the idea mesh. Though she had managed to hold her own against him for the short amount of time that they fought, what he had felt of her power was not worth his attention. Her aura had been large, but it lacked the depth of potential that was evident in the truly powerful. Still, the fact that she came to mind meant he should not assume it was impossible.

"Lord Sesshomaru, loooooooook!" Rin ran over with the new clay figure in her hands. "You were right, she did fix it!"

Alerted, he asked, "She?"

Rin grinned at him. "Only a lady would make it pretty like this!" She thrust the toy into his field of vision.

Sesshomaru turned his head slightly away in restrained disgust. "She" had made him look ridiculous.

Jaken approached. "What's this?" He snatched the toy from Rin. "Oh, milord!" His eyes grew round and the inu youkai heard him choke. "S-such a f-fine likeness…"

Sesshomaru stood, causing Jaken to throw the toy up in the air in alarm and prostrate himself. "I mean, you look horrible! No, I mean, you look ridicu- no! I mean the _toy_ looks-"

The demon lord crushed the kappa youkai's head into the ground under his boot as he walked over him to the place where the basket had been left. He knew he would find nothing, but he needed a moment to think. While ridiculous and insulting, the appearance of the clay figure was another clue. The profusion of bows had brought to his attention the strange shape of them, not unlike the flamboyant, non-traditional bow that had been fashioned from the obi of the dog demoness' kimono.

Standing in the spot where Fuko had crouched only hours ago, the lord of the Western Lands pondered this. The gender of the toy maker was merely an assumption, despite Rin's logic, and the penchant for bows was circumstantial at best. Besides those two paltry pieces of information, there was no other link between the toys and the demoness. What he knew was that the toy maker was a practitioner of fox magic without the prerequisite of being a fox demon, powerful in the manipulation of barriers, and extremely stealthy. He also realized that this person had been following him for days. Since his encounter with the demoness, in fact. He did not want to leap upon the assumption that the two instances were related, but the evidence was piling up.

Vexed, he foraged deeper into the trees and flared his aura to probe the surrounding miles, but no lesser demons were flushed from hiding and no glimmer of power presented itself to indicate a demon of adequate strength had passed nearby. The forest they were traveling through was usually not so empty, but then those who would have been frightened by his approach would already be far away. Turning, he called, "Rin."

"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru?" The girl bounced up from the grass, clutching the clay inu youkai figurine.

"Gather what you need to make another trade with your toy maker. Jaken."

"Y-yes, milord?"

"Go with her."

The next sunrise found them in the same place with the same problem. Sesshomaru inspected the new toy, which was a clay rabbit standing on its hind legs. It had a bow affixed to its tail.

Jaken was pressing his face into the ground and wailing, "Please forgive this poor vassal, Milord! I've failed you again! Truly, I was awake the whole night, watching that blasted basket. Some powerful sorcery must have clouded my vision-"

"Jaken."

"Yes, milord?"

"Have Rin fill the basket again and remain here."

The kappa blubbered, spouting gratitude and praise that Sesshomaru could not be bothered to pay any real attention to. Last night, he had found five claw marks gouged into the side of a tree. They were fresh and completely scentless. Sesshomaru calculated that the mark was no more than a half mile from his camp and he suspected that the toy maker had been here no more than half an hour previous. He had measured the placement and position of the scratches against his own hand and estimated that a demon like himself, only smaller and shorter, had made the marks with a casual, thoughtless swipe. This would be that female's undoing, for he was no longer willing to believe that this was mere coincidence.

He suspected her purpose was to lay some ridiculous scheme to punish him for refusing her company, a plan that possibly included abducting his charge. From her perspective, stealing anything of his would be a grave insult and better still if he cared for the child. Sesshomaru suppressed a growl. Even if this was not her objective, this game of cat and mouse could not be tolerated. It was unacceptable and it was disrespectful. She would not escape unscathed. After the wasted days of travel, he was now completely and terrifyingly focused on capturing the devious female.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Fuko scooped the cool water of the stream into her face and shuddered at the refreshing sensation. After laying back onto the stream bed and settling in to let the water flow around her, she idly traced patterns in the canopy above and pondered the current stalemate between victim and stalker. She wasn't sure which role was hers anymore.

Lord Sesshomaru hadn't broken camp for three days and she felt restless. The demon's little green sentinel hadn't moved from the exact center of their camp in all this time, which meant that her homing mark didn't move either. If she moved too far away from it, she would be lost.

Every morning there was a new offering from Rin on the edge of the camp. It was a trap that failed every time, but Fuko was becoming more and more wary. It was too easy to evade the kappa's detection, and so Fuko was starting to realize that the lord's trap wasn't centered in the clearing. Somehow, he was starting to track her across the ten square miles to which she was confined. For the past two nights, she'd been forced to move periodically to avoid the nightly sweeps that the lord was doing. With every attempt he came a little closer to catching her unawares. His dogged persistence was starting to unnerve her.

"What a disturbing guy," she muttered to herself. She didn't like dealing with adults for just this reason. They were so single-mindedly focused on their agendas and the things that they desired that any occurrence that didn't further their plans was considered detrimental. She wasn't harming anyone by leaving gifts for Rin. She wasn't even inconveniencing the demon lord by following him. He shouldn't even know she was there.

Fuko's half-submerged ears twitched in response to a minute fluctuation in the energies of the forest around her. Alarmed, she sat up and let the water drip out of her hair and ears as she checked her points of reference, which were always few. Her spear was only seven feet away, leaning against a tree on the higher bank of the stream, along with her clothes. The homing mark was in another direction, not really opposite but close to that. She could feel the kappa there and his youki seemed more distressed than usual. She wondered at that for a moment, but she had noticed over the past few days that the little green demon was prone to such highs and lows. The ryu beast wasn't at the camp site and neither was little Rin, but they were together and close enough to their resting place for this to be typical. The demon lord had fallen off her radar.

He did that every now and then. When they were traveling, she figured out that he was searching ahead for threats to his following, but they weren't traveling now and he was searching for her. He didn't know that she, personally, was who he was looking for, but she didn't know where he was to avoid him. This was a stress-inducing situation for Fuko, but she tried to cheer herself out of her paranoia. Of course, not knowing where he was didn't necessarily mean that he was creeping toward her even as she sat here naked in the water.

The skin on the back of her neck prickled at the thought and Fuko surrendered to her instincts. She would cut this bath time short and find somewhere less exposed to wait until he popped back up. She stood and quietly made her way to her clothes, which she put on and adjusted properly, and then she limbered her weapon. A small tugging sensation at the corners of her perception made her youki lock down tightly just as a pulse of foreign demon energy washed over her.

Even as she struggled to remain still and let the energy wash through her without reaction, she knew she had made a mistake. The scatter-shot style probing wasn't what she had been expecting, and while the jab of energy that first brushed her had been evaded, the second that was centered farther away from her caught her off guard with the back wash of its outward ripple. The pattern in which the energy was thrust out wasn't wholly unfamiliar to her, but she had never encountered it outside of her childhood training. She'd never used it herself. While the multiple points of inquiry gave more opportunities to find whatever response one was looking for from the auras in one’s surroundings, the back wash of these rippling energy probes distorted the responses. All one would learn from this method of search was whether or not something with a large amount of youkai energy was nearby. Apparently, this was enough information for the demon lord revealed himself with the release of his youki. He was moving toward her quickly, and from a starting point that was distressingly close to the stream.

Fuko calmed herself with a few deep breaths and then crouched down on the bank of the steam to place her hands between the roots of an overhanging shade tree. Hurriedly, she began to dig. She had no time to run without alerting him of her exact location, but that didn't mean her jig was up. While she couldn't stop a rippling pulse from resonating with her own youki at close range, she could effectively mask every other aspect of her presence from an area for a short amount of time, if she didn't move and wasn't touched.

If a seeker using this flawed search technique was too close to his quarry when he probed for a demon aura, his own energy would mask it. For this masking effect to work correctly, the seeker needed to be very close, virtually right on top of his target.

By the time the demon lord arrived at the stream, Fuko was hidden underneath six inches of damp soil.

The scent of fresh water, clay sediment, dirt, and plants were all that greeted Sesshomaru upon his arrival at a lazy bend in a shallow stream. After his sudden purposeful sprint through the forest, he had expected to immediately plunge into a battle, but all around him was peaceful quiet. He stilled himself and listened, but nothing moved. Even the simple vermin crouched in their subterranean holes seemed to be perpetuating a motionlessness that was almost unnatural. The moment it took to ascertain that no one was fleeing from this area passed and Sesshomaru stalked down to the water to look for the tracks he knew in all likelihood would not be there. She had been here just a few moments before, but no useful trace ever remained by the time he was there to see it.

Surprisingly, her found that the stream bed _had_ been disturbed, but the inconclusive groups of displaced pebbles did not reveal which way the female went. If anything, they indicated that she had never left. Not willing to discount the idea, he probed the area, but nothing alerted him to any presence other than his own. Dissatisfied, he leapt up onto a high bank and inspected the ground for the faintest hint of passing, but the dirt was fresh and the leaves of the foliage were pristine. He probed the area again, and then the surrounding forest, to the furthest of his reaches. There was nothing to be sensed.

There was no more to be gained by staying here, but he was reluctant to leave. She had been here. But his every sense told him she was not here anymore. He disliked having to leave without any sort of tangible clue, but reason told him that his enemy was getting farther away with every second he stood staring into the water at the unconvincing sight of churned up mud. With a nearly imperceptible growl Sesshomaru sped on, heading farther away from the camp and deeper into the forest.

Sometime later, Fuko let out the breath she'd been holding and slowly began to claw her way out from under the shade tree. Once the last layer of old leaves and top soil fell away from the opening of her hideout, she slid out and began to fill the hole so the tree's foundation wouldn't be compromised. The tight space underneath had been about as big as every other simple den she had dug for herself, though she now wondered how she could have been comfortable in such a small space. She hadn't needed a den for hundreds of years and she was surprised that the process was still so close her basic instincts. After finishing the dirty job, she ran her hands over the rough bark of the tree to knock off the caked dirt and murmured a bit of fox magic to the tree. Obligingly, its first outer layer cracked open and her spear fell out. She caught it and closed the tree again.

"That was close," she whispered to her weapon, and then she began a measured lope in the opposite direction of the demon lord. She kept that pace for the next five hours, changing directions only when she approached the boundaries of her ten square miles. There were no more close calls, but he was still hunting by the time the moon rose over the horizon. She grew weary, not of running, but of running circles around him. Stalling wasn't in her nature. She had always been action-oriented.

As the shadows deepened around her, Fuko began to formulate a plan.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Jaken started awake in the gray of dawn, horrified to have found himself sleeping. It was understood that if he was left alone over night with Rin and Ah-Un, he was to guard the camp site until his master's return. Though Lord Sesshomaru had not ordered another trap set, he still had to be vigilant. Glistening tears formed in the toad's eyes. But he was so tired! He hadn't slept at all since they had stopped here to hunt the damn toy maker! He wiped the shameful tears off his face and tried to steel himself against such displays. When he returned, Lord Sesshomaru wouldn't be pleased to find him like this.

At the thought of his master's return, Jaken felt a chill go down his spine. What if he had already returned, and had found him selfishly shirking his duties by dozing the night away? He cautiously looked around the clearing.

Rin was sound asleep and curled up against Ah-Un's shoulder and the ryu-beast was dead to the world with both heads resting on the ground. His master's aura couldn't be felt anywhere around. The kappa youkai heaved a sigh and wiped the nervous perspiration from his brow. "I'm sure glad Lord Sesshomaru didn't come back and find me sleeping," he murmured into the stillness of the early morning. "If he had, I would have taken a rock to the head before you could say-AH!"

Jaken didn't even bother to look around or wonder what had been thrown at him before he pressed his face into the ground and began howling out a long string of apologies, excuses, and self-flagellations. As he was begging forgiveness, he internally cursed his own big mouth.

"Jaken, stand up."

The short green demon halted mid-word and scrabbled to his feet. Had Lord Sesshomaru _growled_ at him, or was it his imagination? He gazed up at his master, who was by this time looming over him. "Y-yes, milord?"

"Jaken," he said again, and another chill went down the kappa's spine. "What is under your hat?"

"M-my hat, milord?" Without thinking, Jaken reached up and slid his fingers under the lip of his small cap and felt around. To his astonishment, he drew out a roll of parchment. "Where did _this_ come from?"

Sesshomaru took the small scroll and stepped on Jaken's chest as he walked over him.

"M-milord!" Jaken coughed and staggered again to his feet. He looked up just in time to see Lord Sesshomaru finish reading. Still walking, the demon lord disintegrated the fragile paper with use of his acidic poison just before disappearing again in to the trees.

Jaken groaned and flopped back onto the ground. The sun wasn't even out yet and he had already earn his master's disfavor.

()()()()()()()()()()()()

_Greetings, Sesshomaru, Demon Lord of the Western Lands. I hope this letter finds you well. I challenge you to a duel! Please meet with me at dawn on the broken ridge near the small lake fed by the steam that you nearly found me at yesterday. I hope to discuss the terms of our battle there. Thank you for your time. Until sunrise, Fuko of the North._

()()()()()()()()

Fuko's furry ears swiveled expectantly toward the pale figure that was walking over the crest in the ridge, but she didn't catch any of the sounds that might've accompanied such activity. Lord Sesshomaru was silent. Fuko supposed this was not for the purpose of being stealthy. He was coming toward her in plain sight and his roiling youkai aura had preceded him far before the sounds of his passage would have given him away. Besides, the purpose of their meeting didn't require stealth. She hoped. Nervous, the she adjusted the strap of her weapon that looped around her body, but then quickly let it fall back into its original position. She also hoped that her weapon would not be needed to convince him to listen, though she was not quite naïve enough to place it on the ground at his feet as she had done for the young fox demon not long ago.

Hesitating only briefly, she sprang to her feet. "Good morning!" she called, and then awkwardly stopped herself from waving half way through the motion. The demoness wasn't accustomed to convening with enemies, but she realized that friendly greetings weren't exactly appropriate.

Lord Sesshomaru didn't reply to her greeting and didn't seem to notice the aborted wave. Just as a red sliver of sun rose above the horizon, his silent stride came to a graceful stop about twenty yards from where she stood. She hummed—how punctual of him. He gazed at her impassively from that spot for a full thirty seconds before she realized that he wasn't going to engage in any unnecessary words. Inwardly wondering at this antisocial behavior, Fuko started the negotiations.

"Lord Sesshomaru, I called this meeting for the purpose of settling the stalemate between us. To that end, I will tell you exactly what I want from you." With no reaction from the Lord of the West, she continued, "I only want to go to the Western Lands, and then only to ask some harmless questions of your subjects. I cannot travel there alone. Guides to that region are hard to come by, and in all the time I've been working to get there, you are the closest thing to a reliable escort that I've found. I truly mean you no harm and I apologize for any disrespect, but I am determined you follow you back to your homeland."

They stared at each other. She wasn't sure what she expected him to say, but the fact that he was here and listening meant that her plan was working. Except that her plan was really more of a bargain, and she didn't know if he would accept or not.

Grown demons struck Fuko as unpredictable. Adults of any race were a source of general confusion and distress for her, but she hoped that she had judged this individual correctly. The small amount of interaction they'd had before revealed more in hindsight than she thought he would be comfortable with. He carried himself with the air of superiority, like one confident that their every action served as some credit to their highly esteemed and prominent name. He had seemed bizarrely eager to fight and unwilling to back down once provoked. She guessed that, like most people who laid claim to one title or another, he attached great weight to words like honor and power. She also guessed that someone on his level, someone who was uncontested ruler of a region, might want for something to test his strength against every now and then.

"You don't want me to follow you," Fuko continued. "You asked before what I could possibly offer to make you change your mind, and I answered incorrectly. Now, I offer you a challenge. If I can defeat you in battle, then I get to follow you to the Western Lands." Seeing the slight narrowing of his eyes, watching him grab the hilt of one his swords, and thinking _oh he’s not taking this well_ , she finished lamely, "And, if I fail, then I'll leave you in peace."

"Hn." As he drew the katana, youki began to radiate from the gleaming metal, and in turn the daiyoukai's aura began to thicken into the visible spectrum. He regarded her impassively as he raised the blade against her. "And if I were to kill you here and now, you would leave me in peace just the same."

"Yes, well." Vaguely, Fuko was aware that his youki was bearing down on her, but she was naturally resistant to intimidation. If she were asked about it, she would be reminded of a friend who affectionately told her that her density rivaled that of the sun. "I suppose, if you feel you have to kill me in order to defeat me…." Fuko drew her weapon, and gathered her energies. "I'm willing to take that chance." She began to twirl the double-bladed spear and then demanded of the daiyoukai. "Lord Sesshomaru, do you accept my challenge?"

He began to walk toward her in that same slow graceful pace he had used before and their battle auras met in a flash of light and crackle of power. "I do."

Fuko began to sidestep, beginning the intricate dance that would make or break her victory. "And do you agree to uphold the terms _on your honor as a lord_?"

For the first time since that meeting of blades several days ago, his eyes narrowed and his lips curled into a true expression—a snarl. It clearly communicated that he would not respond to a question so beneath him, almost as clearly as his first rushing attack.

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**Yup! Next time on Westward Bound!**

**Chapter 4: Fuko vs. Sesshomaru!**

 


	4. Fuko vs. Sesshomaru!

**Hello!**

**I don't know what to do about honorifics! I like when Rin uses them, but it feels a little weird to use –san and –chan and –kun but not –sama. I really like –sama, but I've been using Lord and Lady. Whatever, artistic license!**

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon. Youki- demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai- great demon. Moko moko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad. Dokkaso- Sesshomaru's poison

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**Chapter 4: Fuko vs. Sesshomaru!**

Though no one knew this and Sesshomaru himself would never knowingly acknowledge it, the demon lord of the West had an appreciation for the dramatic arts. As well read as he was, and with as many performances as had been played out before him, he was aware of the many tropes and themes that flowed faithfully through literature and reality alike. He had no patience for the clichéd or the predictable, but a time-honored practice like a duel of honor at dawn had its classic sort of appeal. It certainly was not something he would have predicted from the sly female, but stupidity had a remarkable capacity for capriciousness.

His first strike flung her backward. She landed on her feet, seemingly unfazed, he was not worried. He lunged again and then again, but she dodged to the side both times, and just as he was placing his feet after the third lunge, she turned with that astonishing speed and kicked him high and fast in the ribs. He skidded back several yards from the force of it, staying upright only through sheer force of will.

The blow left him unable to draw in air. Pain arched along his side in a telling manner. At least three ribs were deeply bruised and one must be fractured. She had not just kicked him once in that single split second when his guard was open. He had felt no less than four blows, though he had seen her move only once.

Sesshomaru shook off the paralyzing pain and faced her again. She was in that same loose stance she had presented at their first meeting, but she was not insolently twirling her weapon. He expected some sign of gloating, she gave no triumphant smirk. Her eyes were hard with determination.

The faint scent of blood reached him and he spotted a tear in the side of her kimono, but he knew that whatever damage she had allowed his third strike to do was minor. Inwardly, he cursed. He was a fool to forget that impossible speed she possessed. No matter how idiotic she seemed, he would lose to her if he underestimated her.

The female began her own offense then, dashing to the side in what he at first assumed to be an attempt to get behind him, but then she lifted her spear and the blade thrummed with a deep indigo tinged energy. She unleashed a long range attack that manifested as a spinning youki blade. It gouged a trough into the soil as it sliced toward him with wicked speed. He easily dodged the first and then the second projectile she aimed at him, then he stepped into the third and halted the surging energy with a volley of his own. The Dragon Strike stopped the attack but he was surprised to see it fizzle after clashing with her energy, proving it to be a waste of youki to block with.

More of the spinning youki blades came at him from multiple directions, gaining in number. For every one he dodged, three more would come at his back. Finally, he leapt into the air, summoned a youki cloud to halt his descent, and from there judged his position.

The field below him flashed indigo twice more before it went still. A haze of dust and debris obscured his vision. Her youki had dispersed thickly over the area and he was having trouble locating its center. Instinctively, he scented the air.

He realized that she was coming at him from the right an instant before she was there. He spun and unleashed a whip of radiant green youki, but she used that same strange means to change course mid-air. She chose the wrong direction in her evasion, however, and it barely took him a flick of his wrist to correct. His whip wrapped around the forearm she raised to deflect it and the acidic properties made themselves known, burning almost instantly through the sleeve of her kimono and drawing blood. With a fierce growl, the female slashed the whip with her spear and fell back into the obscuring cloud of dust.

Sesshomaru smirked. So, her clothing was not as durable as his. The small tear in the side of her kimono revealed that she hid no armor.

For every strike she landed, a part of the impact was absorbed by his youki-infused clothes and another larger portion was absorbed by the thick armor that shielded his torso. If he had landed the rapid kick assault that she had, his foot would have gone through her ribcage, simply because of the difference in protection.

An energy blast from below took him by surprise and knocked him from the air, singeing his left side wherever his armor did not reach. It had erupted not even a quarter second after the female disappeared. Without giving him leave to plant his feet on the ground, she appeared from the left and jabbed at him. He parried and parried again, stepping backward, looking for any opening, but she was giving a relentless offensive and at the same time expertly sweeping his counter strikes aside.

The clash wore on for several minutes until Sesshomaru drew blood, but he barely registered that he had before she let go of her spear completely, struck at his chest with both hands, and gripped her weapon again.

Both demons leapt apart, one sporting a slash on her forearm that bleed liberally, the other sans his spiked pauldron. With the speed and accuracy of a berserker pick-pocket, the female had slipped her hands into shielded nooks and crannies on his person and cut most of the ties holding his chest-piece in place with her claws.

As the gleaming shoulder piece fell into the dirt and Sesshomaru regained his footing, the rest of his demonic armor loosened around his body, instantly becoming an awkward hindrance instead of a boon. He shed it entirely without hesitation but not without regret. He cursed himself for taking even that quarter second to smile when his opponent was plotting to even the odds. In the time it took him to break those last bonds of his armor, she regained the length of both their leaps backward and began the assault again.

This time, she was rushing him fast and wild, leaving herself open to attack to increase her chances of connecting. He sensed no desperation in her movements and the steady determination in her eyes was the same as before. This new style of attack was calculated and it was perfuming the air with a mist of demonic blood. Every injury he inflicted, she returned, and he could not yet tell who was getting the lion's share.

As the scent of blood became thick, the beast inside him began straining toward the surface. The very edges of his vision ran crimson. There was no time to consider the emotion whelming up from the place where the beast struggled, but he tasted the effects. Rage strengthened his hand. Every wound inflicted by from Bakusaiga was unforgiving and each slash of his claws burned with dokkaso. But, as the battle wore on, they were too few, hers too many, and the blades of her spear and the tips of her claws were just as honed as his. She was far too fast for this battle to continue along the course he had planned for it, and the doses of his poison were failing to slow her as they should. So, he decided to cripple her.

With the next ring of metal meeting metal, a surge of his youki drove her back and Sesshomaru took to the air again. The cloud of dust had partially settled and the sun was high, so the only obstacle to his gaze was her continuous, random movement. Even as a blur, he managed to track her along the ground. She did not continue her attack for a full second and he wondered briefly at the hesitation.

Taking the opportunity her distraction provided, he raised his sword and sent a maelstrom of Dragon Strikes down to ground level. He lost sight of her in the sea of roiling energy, but was then unsurprised when she appeared above the danger unscathed. She was coming at him, making no attempt to conceal her presence, and with a rapid series of swings from her spear, another barrage of indigo blades sliced through the air toward him. Sesshomaru flew out of the path of the blades and watched as she fell to the ground again—it seemed she did not have his affinity for flight. The instant her feet touched the ground, she was jumping up again, and this time she forewent long range attacks and slashed at him directly with her weapon. The fool.

He flung her backward with another surge of youki, and when she started to succumb to gravity, he loosed his whip and made his move. She swept her spear from side to side in front of her, deflecting the burning whip again and again, but just as she was about to land, he achieved his aim. The whip wrapped around the shaft of her weapon and he yanked her back into the air above him. His feet planted firmly into the dirt and he reached up, striking like a cobra and withdrawing his hand only when it was thoroughly coated in blood. His beast reveled in it, vindicated for this challenge to his status and Sesshomaru's eyes flashed with lurid color before he suppressed it.

The female tumbled upon her landing, rolling twice before coming to an upright stop with one leg lifted pitifully and her spear working as a prop. A low, pained growl floated over to him, and he began to walk across the field toward her. She faced him, saw his unhurried pace as he came for her, and leapt backward under the power of her good leg. Again, she landed badly, going to her knees with a hiss of pain nearly thirty yards away. She bowed, placed her hands flat into the dirt and looked up at him from this submissive position.

He expected her to plead, but she did not. She shouted, "Fox fire!"

Violet flames surged forth from her hands and raced outward, following the lines and gashes in the earth and revealing a pattern. When he tried, Sesshomaru discovered that he could not move faster than his current pace, and he was slowing. When the flames completed their mad race to complete the spelling circle that Fuko had etched into the field, the binding magic dragged on him and crackled visibly over his body in blue and purple arcs. His youki flared wildly, his eyes flooding with red as his beast roared at this new indignity. He picked up speed in his grim march toward her, intent on finishing this.

The female's eyebrows lifted and she slowly raised her spear, taking careful aim before sending a single youki blade flying at him. It struck the upraised blade of Bakusaiga, driving him backward and into the center of the fiery circle. He watched her raise the spear again and then she plunged it into the ground.

Hellish red light burst up from the fox fire. It washed over him and his strength began to fall away like grains of sand through a sieve. His beast bucked powerfully and Sesshomaru lost control. His power ripping through the humanoid shell that felt far too small to contain all that he was.

Even as his maw lengthened, his white fur sprouted forth and rippled over dense muscle, and his body grew to titanic proportions, the red light brightened. The beast's roar became one of impotent rage. Giant paws strained against the chains of energy and he managed to take one half-step toward the target of all his blood-lust, but it was to no avail. The binding magic coiled and he shrank back, pulled down to man size once again.

Sesshomaru swayed on his feet, trying to reason past lingering anger and overwhelming weariness. He had to defend himself, he had to stop this light, he could not move, he barely had the strength to lift his sword… and then he had no strength for that at all. The world spun and he staggered, leaning on Bakusaiga to stay on his feet. It was important that he stay on his feet.

In his last moments of consciousness, he had no energy for anger, whether it was fueled by pride or by bitterness. He could only think that it was fortunate that this female did not wish to kill him. Then he wondered: when he woke next, would he kill her for her foolish mercy? Hn. That was something to consider.

In the battle's aftermath, the tattered and abused land looked as if a thousand soldiers had spent days tramping down the greenery and spilling their blood in an effort to turn all to burgundy muck. Considering the churned up soil, Fuko carefully leaned her weight into Chikyukiba and used the gained leverage to stand. Her right leg was excruciatingly useless at the moment, but she made her way with practiced ease toward the prone figure in the center of the spelling circle. The spear made a handy crutch. This wasn't the first time an opponent disabled her, but it was the first time she wouldn't kill in retaliation. The female inu youkai feared losing her speed like a great artist feared the loss of his hands. She couldn’t take that much damage, if she couldn’t dodge, then she was done for. And though it felt to her like what he'd done was thoughtlessly malicious and cruel, she knew objectively that it was the smartest thing to do.

So, when she finally made it over to him, she refrained from stomping on his head and instead reminded herself of what a good strategy it had been and how he had nearly won because of it. If she hadn't planned to bind him in fox magic from the start, he would have won. Plus—he didn't look like he could withstand a good stomping at the moment. Had his skin always been slightly blue like that? And was it just her imagination, or was he thinner than he had been?

She sighed as she wondered if she had taken too much from him. It was his own fault if she did. She had stopped as soon as he lost consciousness, for that was her only goal. It was his unsettling tenacity kept him awake far longer than he should have been. Anyway, he wouldn't die from his condition and she would set him to rights soon enough, so it would be all right.

Balancing on her left leg and tensing the muscles of her right thigh to keep the limb from dragging along the ground, she quickly crouched, thrust her arm under his torso, drew him securely to her chest, and stood again in the same motion. Wincing, she congratulated herself on maintaining a semblance of balance. As she awkwardly conveyed the grown male across torn ground and into the shade of one of the few trees that still stood on the edge of the field, she focused on the victory. She would recover, and with this small amount of shed blood, she was now closer to her answers than she had been since she lost her birth parents so long ago.

Once in the Western Lands, she would visit the strongholds or the castles, wherever the nobles gathered. If she was lucky, they would have records of inu youkai. If they couldn't help her, then she would tour the demon villages under their rule, and if that failed, she would comb the forests for lone youkai. Even if no one knew of any who could be her kin, they would suggest others who could know. There were untold ancients, demons who had seen countless years, crouched in the belly of the earth, awaiting the opportunity to impart knowledge. The West would host a few of these behemoths. With so many new memories to pick though, someone had to know something. Someone would help her.

Fuko laid the daiyoukai down as gently as she could before leaving him briefly to wobble over to a nearby crater. As she had hoped, his armor was where he dropped it, and she took the time to returned it to him, laying it on his stomach. Then, bracing her weight against the tree and driving her spear into the ground, she activated another spell. It was the near opposite of the spell used to drain him and when an odd green light seeped up from the earth, she settle down next to him and adjusted her damaged leg before leaning back against the tree. The luminescence, though having at first a liquid quality, began to manifest into a cool, twisting flame and licked without feeling at her body.

She was in a prone position but she remained alert and wary. Lesser demons and any other who could have sensed their battle auras would most likely have fled. That left behind aura-blind humans and demonic scavengers and she didn’t want to be caught unawares by either of those. Though, any sort of encounter would come as a surprise. She'd spent her days running all around the area and she hadn't scented an unknown human. They were alone here, but still, she didn't dare sleep. She hated not having her speed to call upon. She had been the fastest ever since she was tiny, she knew in even the bleakest of situations that she could escape. But, with the tendons in her right leg ripped apart, she couldn't escape a tortoise.

She had Chikyukiba guiding the healing light into her disabled limb nearly exclusively. Already, she could feel the tattered flesh of her calf muscles stretching and pulling, striving to reknit and be whole again. Her other wounds and bruises were doing the same. She didn't feel the least bit guilty for healing herself first and after a dragging twenty minutes, the outpouring of the earth's energies restored her to a comfortable condition. If she needed to make break for it when the daiyoukai awakened, she would be able.

Fuko whined to herself then. Her body might be in working order again, but her clothes were a mess! She took a few seconds to throw a pity party before working the bit of fox magic that would fix them. Blood stains and ragged tears burned away or repaired themselves. Once that was underway, she turned to the still form beside her. He wore his armor again, and the spiked arch was rocking into place over his left shoulder.

This would have distressed her if she had known nothing of demon armor. It moved sometimes, she reminded herself.

Touching the shaft of the spear and whispering a few words changed the focus of the light, and it flowed like a liquid once more. Clear green luminescence ripple up and out of the gouge in the soil created by the spear as if she had tapped into a rich water vein. Where the light reached, green life began to spring up, overtaking the muck and creating a soft carpet of moss and grass. It washed over the Lord of the West with immediate effect, stealing away the unnatural bluish tones from his skin and deepening his breathing. Now he was sleeping instead of unconscious, and she decided that she forgave him for destroying her leg.

Fuko stared unseeing at the movement of his chest for a few seconds before her eyes focused. For the first time since she had crossed his path, Fuko looked at Lord Sesshomaru directly, fully absorbing what she saw. A strange feeling of pride welled up in her. This was a dog demon, not her kin, but of her race. He was not just well put together with his eye-catching and expensive-looking clothes that were strangely free of bloodstains. He was also striking in his features. She shared nothing of his exquisite, aristocratic looks—in fact when she compared her memories of her reflection to the still, expressionless face before her, she thought that she must look like a little dark-haired ruffian sitting next to a porcelain prince—but she liked this image, these differences displayed across the arc of their shared race, even if he was prettier than her. The thought came that he would look like a girl if he wasn't so damn imposing. Besides this impressive beauty, he was powerful, and a better opponent than any other she could recall at the moment. In hindsight, she could admire the lithe magnificence of his fighting style and the awful intensity of his youki. Remembering his eyes at that crucial moment when she had forced him back into the center of the binding circle made a shudder crawled over her skin. She smiled with a quick flash of fang and thought happily that she would have a horrid time of it if she ever needed to kill him.

Even as these thoughts came to her, the feeling of pride started to fade. Beauty and power only counted for so much. Though he was a noble, he had yet to prove himself righteous or even decent. He'd been rude to her so far and he showed a deplorable willingness to kill her for what she considered minor transgressions. Like most of the adults she'd met in her life, he was tainted with an overpowering self-interest.

She settled deeper into the tree, the moss that was now growing there creating a comfy cushion. If he upheld his word and delivered her to the Western Lands, then maybe he could make her truly proud of her race, but until then, she would just have to reserve judgment.

Fuko considered the sleeping male for a few seconds more as her eyes started to drift closed. He looked peaceful. Maybe even innocent. Almost like a child. Kinda.

Fuko snuggled deeper still into the thick cushion of moss and let her eyes fall closed, murmuring quietly. "Maybe we can be friends, Lord Sesshomaru."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Sesshomaru stirred. He knew that he was too far from the waking world, but he did not yet wish to leave his current state. He felt that he drifted in cool water, a body foreign and immense, without the touch of sunlight and without the scent of decay, somewhere deep and unreachable. The water knew him. It asked nothing of him. It asked nothing. It existed. In doing so, it invited him to exist alongside it, asking nothing.

Sesshomaru stirred. He knew he was not awake, but he felt that he was small again. He ran on four legs, wild with abandon. The sun warmed his fur. The wind whipped his face. He chased rabbits through tall grass with no thought toward capture. No one said that he should stand on two legs.

Sesshomaru stirred. He knew that he was near waking, so he took the opportunity to face himself. The beast inside him rumbled in displeasure. _Audacious bitch._

The Lord of the Western Lands stirred and entered the stage of sleep that he was most accustom to. He was not truly sleeping, but it was a restive state he entered every few nights as Rin slept. It was all he required, though no one with any choice would choose never to sleep deeply. However, this was the first deep sleep he had enjoyed this season, and it was the deepest he'd ever experienced. He imagined that he would only sleep deeper once he had perished.

Waking fully, Sesshomaru took in the scents around him and then opened his eyes slowly to adjust to the full sunlight. Tall green grass cradled his body, reaching toward a cloudless blue sky, and the accursed female rested quietly beside him. She was awake and grasping her weapon, which was vertical, presumably sheathed in earth as he had seen it before. Her lips quivered and the edge of a word reached him before she drew the spear out of the ground and laid it on her side opposite him.

Fury began mounting inside him at an alarming rate. He was honor bound to deliver her to the West, not just the lands but the holding, and not just her but her whole and unharmed. It was not the letter of the agreement, but it was the spirit and the spirit was what needed to be upheld in order to fully erase all stain of dishonor from him. Because she had dishonored him, Lord Sesshomaru, in battle. She should not have won. He was more powerful, he knew this, but she had out-smarted him. Just this once. He would never allow it again.

"Good morning," she said, watching him, not with the proper wariness but with an open curiosity that offended him.

In a short glance, Sesshomaru took in her appearance. He judged her rumpled, though she looked much the same as their first meeting. She sat comfortably in clothing that had no tears or snags, showing no signs of lingering injury. At this close range, he saw that while her repaired kimono was simple, without a pattern or crest, it shimmered oddly, as if the material were not only silk. The obi showed the same quality. Her hair was unbound and fell down her back and over her shoulders in dark curling waves. The facial markings that had made her appear more recognizable as a great dog demon now made her all the more unusual. Her green eyes were bright and clear, without any self-satisfaction that he could detect.

He had assumed that, upon waking, her conceit would be something he would have to correct violently, honor-bound or not, but here he was thwarted again. The female did not respond in the predictable ways, but he saw now that this itself was only to be expected. All that he had observed of her flaunted convention, from her slightest mannerisms to her assertive actions. Properly raised females would not be so bold as to force their unwanted presence on an unfamiliar male, much less meet his gaze so directly. He was not under the illusion that a well-bred female would not have concocted some under-handed way of securing what she wanted, but her plans would have included the proper subtly and subservience. Furthermore, a more traditional female's plans would have offered some small intrigue before they were duly dismantled, however cunning and sly they might have seemed to the planner. This strange little mongrel processed all the subtly of a battering-ram and still achieved her aim. He inwardly sneered at her flamboyant choice of kimono and carelessly tousled hair. She was unpredictable, but only because she was aimless, and despite her apparent prowess on the battle field, she had revealed herself to have little class. And now he must take her with him.

Looking away disdainfully, he sat up and considered the sea of waving grasses that stretched out across the field where their battle had taken place. He knew he could not have slept long enough for this to occur naturally and he suspected whatever process had restored his youki had also healed this small valley, for his youki _was_ restored to him. He felt extremely well rested and he stood, testing muscles that responded gladly and without protest. He noticed that he still held Bakusaiga in his hand and he sheathed it. His armor had returned to him in his sleep, ties repaired.

"How long have I slept?" he demanded.

"Through the afternoon and night. It's the next day." He heard her clothes rustle and felt her stand, though he did not deign to look upon her again.

She moved until she stood in front him, even going so far as to rise up to the balls of her feet. "Are you feeling well?"

Since she so wished for his gaze, he gave it to her, cold and foreboding. Did she think that because it was necessary that he refrain from killing her now, he would allow disrespect?

"Any nausea?"

The question disconcerted him and made him consider whether or not she had poisoned him while he was vulnerable, but he dismissed the idea immediately and held his glare. She did not show any sign of baulking, but she did take a step back. He did not suppose she did it out of deference, but he reasoned that the concession showed that the proper respect could be conditioned into her.

"Excuse me. You can probably handle any nausea on your own." The female glanced upward as if to indicate the position of the sun. "Should we go now?"

_Impertinent!_ Sesshomaru quailed his first response, which would have been unseemly. Instead, he turned away from her and began moving toward his camp. It would take twenty days of hard travel to reach the Western castle and he would be damned if he allowed her to test his control any further. He could ignore her for that short span of time. She had been permitted far too much already.

He should have killed her on their first meeting. He should have realized that she would not give up so easily. He should have been watching out for her to lay some trap. He should not have even answered her challenge. He should not have assumed that she relied on speed alone in battle. He should have considered that her fox magic would have some offensive application.

She was not following him.

A snarl came unbidden to his lips, but he suppressed it almost instantly. Sesshomaru turned slowly and saw that the accursed female was standing exactly where he had left her, showing no signs of moving. She had affected some pitiful look of uncertainty, as if she were not sure if she should follow, reminding him disturbingly of Rin. He was enflamed—he would not be fooled by anymore of her trickery. How dare she expect coddling?

"Come." He spoke the command around a growl, allowing just enough emotion to show that he would rather she was rotting in the dirt.

She smiled at him.

Sesshomaru began moving toward camp again, sorely hoping something living would cross his path so he could choke the life out of it and relive this terrible want of blood-letting.

Fuko followed the raging inferno of not-anger that was the Western Lord, still wondering if she shouldn't just try and find her own way one more time. He hid his emotions expertly, but that little bit that he let slip was more than enough. He didn't say a word in the half-hour walk they took and still that icy glare was burned into her mind's eye.

She had been stunned when he first turned it on her. He _hated_ her. She had been hated before, but Lord Sesshomaru was the first dog demon she'd ever met! It felt like a failure, like some cosmic joke. _Don't I belong anywhere?_ she asked herself.

But this was all secondary. She needed answers far more than she needed to belong. So, she would follow. Grin and bear it, as it were. And try to get on his good side.

They approached the campsite a few hours past dawn and the daiyoukai entered the clearing without hesitation. Almost before the others knew they were there, he began giving orders. Fuko stood just beyond the tree line and watched with wide eyes as a three day camp was broken down into two tiny bundles and stored away in a single saddle bag in less than five minutes.

How was that possible? Whenever she found herself traveling with a child, the baggage was always far more than that. Maybe Rin didn't have a lot of extra clothes.

No one saw her in the sudden bustle, but once the work was done and they were ready to continue their travels, the little group seemed to notice her as a whole. Rin ducked behind Lord Sesshomaru, the ryu-beast made a startled sound and reared, and the kappa started squawking something that she didn't catch at all. Fuko was focused on the girl and saw the moment that fear stole into her doe-brown eyes. A pang shuddered though the female inu youkai's heart and she immediately fell into a knee-hugging crouch with her ears pinned to her head. The child's fear lessened and Fuko gave her a little smile. Their eyes met and held, and as they held, the girl's fear dissipated completely. Rin gave the cutest little smile and edged forward just the tiniest bit.

"Who is that, Lord Sesshomaru?" she whispered.

Jaken shouted, "You, female! Who are you? What are you doing here!"

Ah-Un vocalized and stamped his front feet.

Fuko's smile widened and she sketched a small spelling circle in the dirt at her feet, and then breathed a single word. White light shone briefly and a small figure was left in its place. Her heart swelled when the little girl grinned and took three quick steps toward her and the new clay doll standing on the ground.

"You made Rin's dolls!" Rin cried, excited. "Is that for Rin too?"

"You! Troublesome toymaker!" Fuko saw the toad's eyes bulging as his voice rose to new heights. "B-but—What! What! Mi-milord! What is the meaning of this? Did you not mean to kill this creature just yesterday?"

Before ryu-beast could express his opinion again, a rock struck the imp upon the head, knocking him to the ground and blessedly silencing him. "You will not question this Sesshomaru." Each word was a chunk of ice pelting the poor toad.

Quieter, but still loud, Jaken began wailing apologies.

"Silence." The word was absolutely frosty!

The imp cowered and so it was silent for a few long seconds. Fuko took the opportunity to stand, scooping up the clay figure as she did so.

When he spoke again, Lord Sesshomaru's voice and face were completely without expression, but it seemed to Fuko that the words were dragged from him. "This female will travel with us until we reach the Western Castle. We leave immediately." He turned sharply and began walking at a pace meant to accommodate a child but still cover ground quickly.

"Y-yes, milord!" Not even sparing the others a glance, Jaken took up Ah-Un's reins and scrambled after him.

Again filled with misgivings, Fuko fell into line behind the girl, who, with a quick 'yes, milord', instantly began following Jaken. What kind of group had she just joined?

After just a few minutes, the girl child glanced back at her. They exchanged smiles, but no words and a few moments later, Rin began to hum softly. Fuko didn't know the song, but she listened raptly with twitching ears. Her misgivings fell away. She knew children, and such a bright and shining child couldn't exist in a group with a tyrant at the helm.

As the hummed tune began to repeat in a predictable way, she joined in, earning another little smile from the girl. The morning and early afternoon flowed away like that, first Rin and then Fuko taking turns leading the musical entertainment. No one spoke and everyone kept marching. Fuko had just begun to wonder when they would take a break to feed and water Rin when Lord Sesshomaru simply stopped moving. It startled both hummers into silence, but Jaken didn't notice fast enough. The only thing that stopped the imp from colliding with the back of his master's legs was Ah-Un's equally sudden stop and his grip on the reins. As it was, the momentum tugged him off his feet and he fairly exploded into sound, as if the words had been bottled up for too long.

"Ah-Un, you great lummox, you dumb beast! You did that on purpose! I'll teach you, you stupid lizard-"

"Jaken." Lord Sesshomaru half turned and regarded the imp, who had thrown himself to the ground upon hearing his name in that tone.

"Y-yes, milord?"

"Feed Rin." And then the demon lord turned and continued onward down the path.

Fuko scuffed her boot along the ground, frowning slightly. Just before he turned, Lord Sesshomaru nailed her with that icy look again. It hadn't been filled hatred this time, but this look had been almost as disturbing. It was a clear warning— _don't try anything_. What did he think she would do? Slaughter his little pack? Obviously not, since he left her here, but the look still rankled. Fuko was a trustworthy, upstanding demon, in her own opinion.

One second, she was looking at her feet and the next she was looking into an adorable little smiling face. Rin had come to stand in front of her. "Rin's name is Rin! Hello!" The little girl tried a wobbly bow.

Fuko laughed softly and returned the bow. "My name is Fuko. I'm pleased to meet you."

"Rin! Come away from that creature this instant!" Jaken trotted over and thrust himself in between them, brandishing his staff. "I recognize you now! You can't fool me! You're that demon from before, who attacked Lord Sesshomaru without provocation! I don't know how you got Lord Sesshomaru to change his mind about killing you, but I won't let you near Rin!"

The girl in question's eyes widened and a little look of worry touched her features. "Did you really attack Lord Sesshomaru, Fuko-san?"

The demoness shrugged. "He attacked me first. Besides, I didn't hurt him much."

Jaken's eyes bulged in that unpleasant way again. "You-you wretched woman! You would never be able to hurt the great Lord Sesshomaru at all! You can't do anything against him! You are nothing compared to-"

"So," Fuko interrupted. "Am I a killer demon who unduly assaulted your master or am I completely harmless and beneath notice?"

He sputtered.

"Aren't you supposed to be gathering food?" she asked.

The sputtering increased in volume. He looked as if he were choking.

Fuko shifted her focus to Rin and offered her the clay figure that she'd made that morning. "Here, Rin-chan, if I may call you Rin-chan. It's a bird."

Rin practically trampled the discombobulated imp to get a closer look. "Rin knows what kind of bird that is! That's an egret."

"Sure is!"   
The girl carefully took the doll, mindful of the long fragile legs.

"Are you hungry?" Fuko asked.

Jaken leapt forward again, this time very nearly bashing her in the head with the staff as he waved it threateningly. "It's none of your concern if she's hungry or not!"

Fuko caught the waving weapon, yanked it out of his hands, and then threw it into the bushes.

"My staff!" he cried, and then went away.

"Rin's sorry, Fuko-san!" The girl looked embarrassed. "Master Jaken isn't usually so mean."

Though she suspected this was not the truth, Fuko nodded. "Let's find some food, shall we?"

Rin had a lunch of nuts, berries, and three small fish while Fuko watched, Jaken stood off to the side grumbling and Ah-Un idly nibbled the local flora. The girl didn't eat ravenously, but she plowed through the meal steadily until everything was gone. She must have been very hungry, but too polite to gorge.

"May I ask you a personal question, Rin-chan?" Fuko asked as she chewed the last bite.

"Mm-hmm!"

"How did you come to travel with demons? It's a little unusual."

Rin swallow and smiled, showing that she had lost a few baby teeth. "Rin was alone, but Lord Sesshomaru came, and Rin follows him now!"

Fuko's ears drooped, but she laughed anyway. "Well, that's a fair explanation, I suppose. But where are your parents, your family?"

The girl faltered and seemed to be trying hard to remember. "Rin had a human family, but then... something bad happened… and Rin was alone for a long time."

Fuko very gently laid a hand on the girl's head, smoothing her brow with the heel of her hand. "Well, you were lucky to have found a demon family, weren't you?"

Another gap-toothed smile appeared and the girl leapt to her feet. "Yes!" She fairly skipped over to the kappa youkai and, laying her hands on his hunched shoulders, began formal introductions. "This is Master Jaken! He's Lord Sesshomaru's vassal." Just as he was about to start squawking again, she skipped away and over to the ryu-beast. "This is Ah-Un!" She pointed carefully to the right head and then the left. "This one is Ah, and this one is Un! He's Lord Sesshomaru's steed."

"Rin! Do not speak to that demon! It is no concern of hers what our names are!" No one paid attention to the imp and he didn't dare come close to Fuko again, seeing as it had taken him some time to retrieve his staff and he did not want to lose it a second time.

"What an interesting name." Fuko assumed a contemplative pose and tapped a clawed finger-tip to her lips, ears twitching with interest. "Is it possible? Do you know if he was named after the sound demons, Rin?"

The girl cocked her head to the side. "Sound demons? Rin gave Ah-Un his name, but Rin doesn't-" Rin suddenly clamped a hand over her mouth and then continued again slowly. "I mean, _I_ don't know of any sound demons."

Fuko hummed a little laugh at the child's self correction. "But, if you don't know of the sound demons, I wonder where you heard the name. The Ah and the Un do not live here."

"Where do they live?" Rin asked.

Fuko gave a self-deprecating smile. "I've no idea. I'm bad with directions, you see. I have no idea where I was when I met them and the others like them. I know I was not here." Again, the demoness tapped a finger to her lips and said half to herself. "But it was a place like this one. And hearing that name again makes me wonder if these places are closer than I thought."

"Do you travel a lot, Fuko-san?"

"I travel like you breathe, Rin-chan."

"I travel all the time with Lord Sesshomaru and Master Jaken and Ah-Un. Do you like to travel?"

"I do like it, but I like to learn about new places too, and that means I have to try and stick around."

"But if you are bad with directions, don't you get lost?"

"I do."

"Do you like being lost?"

"I've gotten used to it."

"How many places have you been?"

"A countless number, mainly because I get lost so frequently."

The next twenty minutes were filled with questions and answers in a concentration only achievable with an inquisitive child and Fuko was greatly entertained. When she felt the daiyoukai approaching, she stood from her seat and dusted off her bottom, wondering if the conversation would stop again when he arrived. "Your Lord Sesshomaru is coming."

The child's eyes brightened in a telling way and she jumped to her feet. "Lord Sesshomaru's coming?"

Jaken, or Master Jaken, as the girl called him, leapt to his feet in much the same fashion. "W-what are you babbling about, woman? I don't sense milord's presence."

"Well, it's only natural that I would sense him before you." Fuko moved over to the little fire, which was just embers at this point, and stamped it out completely. They had already cleared away Rin's leavings, and the saddlebags hadn't been unpacked at all. "You're a toad, I'm a dog…"

This little fact started a torrent of shouted insults and threats that were nearly deafening. Annoyed, Fuko strode over to the little green man and gripped him by the back of his robes to lift him into the air. Giving him through shake, she said. "Stop that squawking! No one is intimidated or impressed!"

He only got louder.

Sighing, she held the lesser demon out to Rin. "Do you know how to make him stop?"

"Lord Sesshomaru can make him stop," she said proudly.

Fuko turned to the trees where the Western Lord had stopped to watch the proceedings.   
She held out the imp expectantly.

Jaken flailed wildly, his voice reaching ear-splitting heights. "L-lord Sesshomaru! Help me! This female does not show the proper respect for her betters! She-"

"Lower your voice, Jaken."

He stumbled to a halt mid-word and so Fuko set him down, relieved. But then he picked up his fallen staff and took a swing at her!

"Hey!" she snapped and dodged another swing at her shins.

"You no good mongrel! You lowly cur!" He had lowered his voice alright, but neither he nor Fuko missed the subtle look Lord Sesshomaru sent Jaken with the order.

Lord Sesshomaru turned and said, "Come, Rin."

The girl who was standing and watching with concern, but she answered, "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru." She glanced once more at Master Jaken and Fuko-san and decided that Jaken wouldn't catch her—she was moving too fast. So, she took Ah-Un’s reins and began tugging him along. "Come on, Ah-Un!"

As the three walked and the sounds of a one-sided battle faded in the distance, Rin asked, "Lord Sesshomaru, did you know that Ah and Un are named after sound demons?"

"Hn."

"Fuko-san says that the Ah and the Un live far away from here, but maybe very close, and the Un eat noise and the Ah eat silence. They look like snails. They can climb into your ears! How do you think one eats silence, Lord Sesshomaru?"

For a long moment, Lord Sesshomaru didn't answer, but Rin waited patiently and was rewarded for it. "Sound demons that appear as snails? There are none. It is simply a story she told to amuse you."

The girl faltered slightly. "She said that she went to where they live."

"Hn."

In the time before Fuko carried a limp and newly be-lumped Jaken back to the group and set him on Ah-Un's back to rest, Rin had recounted their short stop for lunch in its entirety and Sesshomaru let her. He should not have been surprised when she lapsed into telling the accursed female what little he had to say about her stories.

"I can understand why he thinks they aren't real," was all Fuko said about it, and then she steered the conversation in another direction.

Night approached and fell before they stopped to make camp and Rin was dead on her feet, barely able to eat the meager dinner Jaken scrounged up for her. Still, she stayed wake and kept talking, though Fuko tried to quiet her. Fuko helped lay out her small bedroll, which was really just a few furs, and then encouraged her to lie down. That was all it took.

"Quite the little conversationalist, huh?" Fuko looked around at the others, but what she saw reminded her instantly that she was not wanted here. Her only fan was deeply asleep.

Jaken sat with his back to her, minding the fire and giving her the silent treatment. He'd woken up in a bad mood, but she didn't mind the quiet. Lord Sesshomaru sat with his back against the tree in a strategic sentry position, radiating near toxic levels of not-anger and not-loathing. And he was not-glaring (not looking toward her but tracking her every move in a way that communicated that he thought she was unimportant but treacherous). Even Ah-Un was watching her, though she had no way of knowing what he(they?) was thinking.

She suspected that the kappa youkai usually rested near the child and she had no intention of usurping anyone's role in Rin's odd little family. So, with a quiet sigh, Fuko left Rin in her spot part way between the fire and Ah-Un and went to a more unobtrusive location to wait out what promised to be a tense night.

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**See you next time!**

**Chapter 5: To Relieve Stress**

 


	5. To Relieve Stress

**Me again!**

**Okay, here's another chapter. Maybe it should have been in two parts.**

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon. Youki- demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai- great demon. Moko moko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad. Dokkaso- Sesshomaru's poison. Hime- princess. Kami- gods.

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**Chapter 5: To Relieve Stress**

The child was too stressed. Fuko glanced worriedly from the kappa youkai to the ryu-beast, and then to the inu youkai. Everyone was stressed, but no one except the child would get a weakened immune system and possibly a fever because of it.

Every change in a person's life caused stress, whether the change was good or bad, and Fuko recognized that her appearance in this little pack was a big change. Rin was overjoyed to have her there, and that was the problem—she was _over_ joyed. With Master Jaken's near constant verbal abuse toward her, Ah-Un's cautious watchfulness, and Lord Sesshomaru's silent not-resentment, Rin was trying too hard to compensate and make her feel welcome. Now this little girl was giving every indication that an exhaustion sickness was on the way and Fuko was having none of it! The demoness began to formulate a plan.

It was only day three of traveling with Lord Sesshomaru and his group, but Fuko had the routine down to a science by the morning of the second day. It was a continuous game of Simon-says and the Lord of the West made for an unbending Simon. They were up when he said up, down when he said down, and his followers seemed grateful for every order.

Fuko didn't mind that and she even appreciated that he was a decisive leader. However, she wanted to protest the grueling pace for the sake of the child. She didn't of course. He was trying to get rid of her by getting to the West as soon as possible, or so she assumed. The group hadn't been moving nearly this doggedly before.

That aside, part one of her plan naturally involved taking extra care that Rin wasn't unnecessarily strained and stuffing her with vitamin C and other immunity boosters. Which meant taking extra care with meal time.

"Is this good, Fuko-san?" Rin showed her the tuber she had dug up.

"That's not quite what I had in mind, but hold on to that." Fuko scented the air again. "I smell something really good over there." She took her spear in hand and knelt, presenting her back to the girl. "Get on, Rin-chan. We'll go find what's for breakfast."

Jaken scrabbled after the duo when they took off through the trees, shouting, "Wait for me, you demon wench! Where do you think you're taking Rin?"

Fuko slowed immediately, though she was already going slowly so as not to startle Rin, who was giggling in her ear. Part two of the plan involved making the others more comfortable and she thought that the imp might soften toward her if she accommodated some of his demands.

"I said, slow down! Idiotic dog!"

She rolled her eyes and jogged. "Please try and keep up, Master Jaken. We wouldn't want to keep your lord waiting, would we?"

By the time they reached the little grove, Jaken had fallen far behind, but only because of the series of bushes Fuko had no choice but to jump over. She quickly helped Rin gather a few of the little seedless oranges from the wild citrus trees and then headed back. She offered Jaken a lift along the way, but was insulted for it.

"Suit yourself," she said with a shrug and then continued on with Rin waving good-bye from her perch on the demoness’ back.

It took Rin a few minutes to find the path that they had taken over the bushes, but after that hurtle, Fuko was able to sniff out their trail.

Back at camp, she watched Rin enjoy the fruit and the starchy roots that had been roasted over the small fire. As she collected the leftover orange rinds, Fuko said, "Maybe we'll have tea with lunch, Rin-chan."

"Really?" the girl breathed, excited. So adorable!

"Sure!" Fuko reached over and ruffled her hair, and then frowned and sniffed at the wave of old sweat smell. "And a hot bath, too."

"Really?!" Rin turned to her daiyoukai. "May we, Lord Sesshomaru?"

He tilted his head to her and said, "Perhaps." Then he stood and turned toward the sun, which had risen rather beautifully that morning and still displayed some flashy colors.

Fuko's ears bobbed down then back up in her confusion. He had flicked a little glare at her, but what did that mean? Was he annoyed that she was making Rin promises? No. He hadn't hesitated to discourage anything that he wanted no part of over the course of the past two days, like when she mentioned swimming or patronizing a road-side tea house Rin had spotted on a nearby ridge. Both times, the demoness had to satisfy herself with telling Rin a story about the activity they had to forgo. The girl child had seemed happy enough with the substitute.

The female members of the group were just packing up the last of the camp while Lord Sesshomaru looked on when Jaken staggered into the camp, huffing. "I return to you, milord!"

In reply, the demon began to walk away. "Come."

"Okay!" Rin chirped and Fuko echoed her dutifully. Jaken squawked something like 'what about my breakfast?', but then followed a little shakily in their wake, eventually taking Ah-Un's reins.

It was only a few hours later that Rin began running out of steam, her conversation flagging in that telling manner. Fuko offered to sing her a song in hopes of giving her an excuse to walk quietly, but Jaken chose that moment to begin berating her for 'annoying everyone with her constant noise', never mind that he'd been chiming in on their conversation the entire time. Rolling her eyes, she waited for the kappa to take a breath and then asked Rin if she ever rode Ah-Un.

"Oh, yes, Fuko-san. I ride Ah-Un when he flies, or when I'm too tired." The little girl's eyes widened as she made an intuitive leap. "But I'm not too tired, Fuko-san! I can walk!"

Fuko hummed—so Rin was the type of child who would say she wasn’t sick while red with fever. The unbidden denial made it clear she was actually feeling tired and Fuko was about to argue the little girl's claim when Simon made another decree.

"Rin. You will ride Ah-Un."

"Yes, milord!" The girl fairly sprang onto the dragon's back. So nimble!

Fuko laughed a little. That was one way to get her on off her feet.

"Weak human!" Jaken harrumphed.

Fuko watched Rin's face and was puzzled and relieved to see the girl smile instead of getting her feelings hurt. Jaken clambered up on the moving dragon and pressed his little hand against Rin's forehead, then cupped her cheeks. When he was satisfied she didn't have a fever, he leapt back down.

It only took one glance back at the demoness before he began squawking again. "What are you smiling about, you wretched mongrel? You treacherous trickster! You should learn respect for your betters! I'll hit you with my staff if you don't stop that smiling."

Obligingly, Fuko assumed a look of great sadness with her ears drooped mournfully. Rin giggled.

The lesser demon wailed in frustration and brandished his staff. "You dare mock me? The impertinence! Why, you-"

"Jaken. Why do you let her goad you to such displays?"

Fuko blinked in surprise at the demon lord's interruption and Jaken immediately shifted his focus and trotted forward to walk beside him.

"My lord! She's so disrespectful! I defend the honor of your following! She does not offer the proper gratitude to you and she treats Rin as if she is her pet! That foolish female! She taunts me constantly! She takes liberties where she should not!"

The long list of recriminations continued and continued. Fuko became a little nonplussed as the rant reached its twenty minute mark. This kappa was exceptionally loquacious, and though he very often said the same thing, he never said it the same way. Rin had fallen asleep on Ah-Un, and Fuko began walking closer to the dragon than she ever had before, hoping to keep her from falling off. It was mostly unnecessary. The ryu-beast was being careful and the child was balanced in the hollow between their necks. After forty minutes, the imp was still going strong but Fuko had tuned him out. Rin was snuffling like a puppy! So cute!

It took the female inu youkai a minute to realize that Un had turned around and his snout was almost touching her ear. She regarded him calmly and curiously, aware that he couldn't snap at her with the muzzle around his mouth. This was her chance to make a good first impression.

He sniffed at her. She sniffed at him. Ah glanced at them with one eye before turning back around, disinterested.

"Hello, Un," she said quietly. "You're curious about me? I'm curious about you, too."

He leaned toward her and gently but firmly pressed his scaly nose into the hair between her ears and began snorting loudly.

It tickled and she laughed. "Do you like me, or just my smell? Or maybe you just wanted to scratch your nose."

"Ah-Un, you traitor!" Jaken appeared, waving his staff. "Don't consort with that female!"

Ah hissed and Un arched his neck, making a chirping sound. Both looked affronted and Ah bent his neck and knocked Jaken off his feet with his snout, then both trampled him as they continued walking.

"That was a little harsh," Fuko murmured, but she continued to walk beside the dragons.

Fuko woke Rin about an hour after noon, guessing that they would stop soon for her lunch. The child was drowsy at first but gradually remembered the promises of that morning and began to get excited. She hopped down from Ah-Un and began skipping and singing.

"Te-ea and a ba-ath! Wa-ter, wa-ter! So-oo fun! Hot te-ea and hot ba-aths! For ev-er-y-one!"

"What's this?" Jaken demanded. "Tea and hot baths? What are you babbling about, Rin?"

"Fuko-san said that we should have tea and hot baths when we stop for lunch today and Lord Sesshomaru said 'perhaps'!"

The imp immediately glowered at Fuko. "And just where do you think we'll get tea leaves and enough hot water for a bath? Foolish female! There are no hot springs around here! How dare you get Rin's hopes up like that?"

Rin looked crushed at the revelation and Fuko's ears flattened to her skull. She narrowed her eyes at the imp. "I know magic, Master Jaken, and I would not carelessly throw suggestions around just to disappoint someone."

Rin tugged on the sleeve of her kimono. "What kinds of magic do you know, Fuko-san?"

She softened immediately as she looked down at the girl. "Fox magic, alchemy, a bit of charm-crafting… a bit of everything, I suppose."

The child smiled and resumed her skipping. "Fu-uko-san! Knows so-oo much! Fu-uko-san! Ma-agic wea-ee-ver!"

"Stop that!" Jaken turned to the demoness and scoffed, "You braggart! I've never even heard of this ' _alchemy'_! Besides, I know magic, too." He stopped in the middle of the path in front of the girls and proudly produced several slips of paper from his robes. "Look! If I used this, it would spew a noxious mist, and this one would create a full grown tree."

Fuko took one of the papers from his fist full and then nodded. "Spell-tags, huh? These are well-made, too." Then she smiled wryly and held the red tag out for him to read. "This one's for a hot spring."

"Oh!" Rin beamed at the kappa youkai. "You can make a hot spring for everyone to bath in, Master Jaken!"

He looked flustered and scratched at the side of his head. "Oh, well—ah. Quite right, Rin. I suppose that I forgot about that tag."

Fuko hummed and then pointed out. "Your lord is leaving you behind."

With a squawk of alarm, Jaken raced away. The demoness tucked the red spell tag into her kimono and took Rin's hand. "Let's catch up."

The daiyoukai hadn't gone much farther than around the next bend before stopping, and when they approached, he ordered Rin to find herself something to eat and ordered Jaken to see about the hot spring. Fuko accompanied Rin unbidden after passing Jaken his spell tag and exchanging a few words—his heated, hers dead-pan. ("My spell! You stole it from me!" "You ran off without it." "Thieving cur!" "I'm returning it to you." "Treacherous female!" "Just take it.")

The demoness also noted that Lord Sesshomaru had given her another not-glare, pointedly leaving her out of the instructions. She still echoed Rin's acknowledgment as though he had told her to accompany the child. Perhaps it wasn't wise to poke fun at him, but she couldn't resist.

"Do you smell anything tasty, Fuko-san?" Rin asked.

She obligingly scented the air and then began walking. "This way." After reaching a small clearing, Fuko turned to the girl and gestured. "There should be more than enough here. See what you can gather from this clearing, Rin-chan, and I'll go look for more ingredients for the tea."

She responded enthusiastically to the task and Fuko was glad to see that morning's nap had helped her so much. Being an inu youkai, it was simple enough to sniff out an herb to complement the citrus rinds while keeping an ear out for Rin. She even found a bee hive in the hollow of a tree. Fox magic produced a container for a bit of honey and she moved fast enough to avoid the insects notice completely. On her way back to the girl, she scented some leafy thing that gave her a gift idea and she gathered some of it before moving on.

Fuko found Rin flitting around the clearing with a wide variety of flora filling the basket she'd fashioned by holding up the edge of her little checkered kosode. This was a trick every child should know and Fuko was glad that the girl possessed this token of childhood.

"Look, Fuko-san! There is so much here!"

Fuko crouched, holding the honey-pot against her thigh to minimize its presence. "Let me see."

Rin presented her loot and Fuko smiled, noting that everything the girl had picked was edible and would take little preparation. "You've got a bit of everything, don't you? Can you eat all that?"

She nodded proudly. "Lord Sesshomaru says not to take more than I can eat when there's so much food around."

This wasn't the first time Rin had quoted the daiyoukai's advice. It was plain fact that the girl thought the demon hung the moon. Fuko nodded sagely and replied, "That's a smart policy."

Rin suddenly frowned and said. "Lord Sesshomaru is smart! And really strong! And pretty!"

He hung the moon and the stars, too, it seemed. "I agree."

"You do?" Rin looked like she didn’t believe her. "You frown at him sometimes."

Fuko's ears bobbed. "Only because he confuses me. Isn't he confusing?"

The girl hummed, not denying that assertion but amending it, "Sometimes he can be confusing, but Lord Sesshomaru is nice." She wiggled her toes in the grass and seemed about to add something, but then just nodded resolutely. "Really nice."

It was Fuko's turn to hum and amend. "He does nice things."

Rin shook her head and regarded her intently. "Lord Sesshomaru is nice."

The demoness stilled and considered the child’s words and the way that she meant them, staring into her dark brown eyes. Rin wasn't just expressing an opinion here. Right or wrong, she was making a statement.

"Lord Sesshomaru is nice," Fuko repeated dutifully, and then she was rewarded with a heart-warming smile.

Toes wiggling again, the little girl added shyly, "And Lord Sesshomaru likes when nice things are done for him."

"I understand," Fuko assured her, wondering if the girl was a natural mediator or if someone had taught her.

Rin bunched the front of her kosode in one hand, took Fuko's hand in the other, and then tugged her to her feet. "Let's go!"

Back where Ah-Un waited, Fuko built a little fire and helped Rin to wash her findings with the water from a large bamboo-shoot container that had been in the saddlebag. Both Lord Sesshomaru and Jaken were gone, but she could sense the Staff of Two-Heads not too far away in the forest. There was also the youki of a strange demon there as well. For a second, she considered checking on the imp, but then figured his master would have sounded some alarm if there were danger nearby.

Fuko foxed up a large clay teapot, much to Rin's delight, and then set some water to boiling. She furtively tucked the honey pot away where Rin wouldn't see and then laid out the ingredients she'd found on some large tree leaves. "What do you think, Rin-chan?" Fuko shuffled some of the herbs, changing their positions. "What will we add to the tea?"

Rin looked up from her roasting veggies and paused in nibbling her assorted berries and nuts. "I liked the oranges from this morning." She touched the rinds and then poked around the other leaves. "Those flowers are pretty."

"That's wild jasmine. Smell."

"Mmm! Rin's had that in tea before!" The girl blushed. "I mean, _I_ have had that in tea before."

"Well then. You'll just have to have it again." Fuko rearranged the order, pushing away the herbs she wouldn't need and then picking the right amounts for the blend. She arranged the herbs that would combine for a full-bodied taste in a small row close to her knees, then poked and prodded at them. Not too much jasmine, maybe a little more of the thistle? All of the rinds, she'd only kept enough for the tea. Humming industriously, she configured recipe, not going for anything too daring. She wasn't in the mood for a sharp flavor, but she definitely wanted citrus and jasmine at the forefront. She sniffed and absently reminded Rin not to burn her food. After fussing with taste theory a bit more and deciding that she was satisfied with the bouquet, she foxed up a stone platter, again to Rin's amazement, and carefully tilted the chosen ingredients off their leaves and into its the center one by one.

Master Jaken approached from the direction that now smelled of steam and minerals. Rin waved. "Hello, Master Jaken. Did you make the hot spring?"

"I did, you ungrateful girl." Then he glowered at Fuko and came nearer. "What do you think you're doing? Untrustworthy dog! Are you trying to poison Rin?"

Fuko didn't pause in her work. "Nope."

The imp sputtered. " _Nope?_ Impertinent woman! I'm serious!"

"Okay." She gave the mixture one more sniff. Too much jasmine?

"Are you listening to me?!" he screamed into her ear.

Fuko conjured a sphere of blue fox fire which flared impressively, licking at her wrist and seeping down her arm. Jaken leapt back with a gratifying effeminate squeal. She flashed him some fang. "Be careful, Master Jaken. These flames are unforgiving." She stifled the sphere a bit before dropping it onto the stone platter. It flickered, looking about to go out, but then caught on and began consuming all the moisture in the fresh tea ingredients.

"Hn."

Fuko glanced over her shoulder. "Oh, hello." She stopped herself from adding 'You startled me.' or asking 'Where did you come from?'. Spooky dog.

"Lord Sesshomaru!"

"M-milord!"

Both went to him, speaking at once about what they had done in the short time that they were apart. Fuko would have said they were reporting to him like soldiers if they both weren't so eager. Even Ah-Un made greeting sounds before going back to resting their heads on the ground.

Thoughtful, she took Rin's food off the cook fire and laid it on some of the empty leaves, flaring her youki very slightly to keep insects away. As the fox fire petered out, she made a rolling-pin type tool that had a blunt cutting edge instead of a flat surface and kept one ear pointed toward the others as she crushed the dried herbs to prepared them for steeping. She made no effort to hide her interest. It sounded like Jaken had summoned some lesser demon to dig a pool and line it with rocks, which she found significant. He hadn't seemed the type to have others under his command.

After Rin had stopped talking and Jaken had stopped saying pertinent things, Lord Sesshomaru made that sound he always made (‘hn’) and walked away from them toward a shade tree near Ah-Un.

Rin raced back over and looked at the cooking fire. "Did I burn the food?"

"No, I took care of it."

Rin plopped down and began testing the temperature of the cooked veggies with her fingertips. "Thank you, Fuko-san!"

Fuko was tending the teapot, which contained the herbs now, so she didn't see Rin reach for the little clay pot left next to the stone platter.

"What's-" There was the sound of ceramic clinking. "Oh!"

Fuko turned. "You found the honey."

"Honey!" she squealed. "Honey! How did you get honey?"

"Luck and bees." Fuko shrugged casually. "Here." She took the container and spilled a dollop into the teapot. Sniffing, she added just a bit more and then passed it back to Rin. "A drizzle of that would go well with your food."

Rin carefully tilted the pot and poured a few thin strands over the tree leaves that held her cooked food. Fuko complemented her on her artful pouring, and then stood. "Itadakimasu!"

She smiled adorably and echoed the sentiment before digging in.

Fuko turned and began walking toward Ah-Un, patting herself in consternation. Where was that plant? She'd tucked it in somewhere so she wouldn't take it out with the tea things, now she wasn't sure where it was. She drew out a fistful of small items. No. She replaced them and tried again. Ah-ha! Just as she drew out the bundled leaves, she felt the daiyoukai's aura begin to stir in a disagreeable manner.

She glanced at him, saw that he had leveled a cold glare at her, and then she looked pointedly at Ah-Un. She also changed her course, making it clear she had no intention of invading his personal space. Experience told her that the look meant he was going to do something soon and she hoped that the something involved building bridges. She could feel the glare remain until she stopped in front of the ryu-beast, and by then dragons were aware of the agitated energies.

Un perked up and looked back and forth between the two inu youkai and Ah grunted at her but then turned away without lifting his head.

"Hello, Ah. Hello, Un. I found this plant and I thought you two might like it. I've met dragons who enjoy the flavor." She held up one of the small fern fronds and kept it still for Un to sniff. He chirped. "You like it? Here." Fuko reached up to unlatch the muzzle he wore, but Jaken ran over.

"Don't touch him!" He took a swing at her shins, but she stepped back. He didn't try it again. "You are not to remove Ah-Un's muzzle! Foolish woman! He may be an herbivore, but he is dangerous!"

Fuko rolled her eyes. "Would you take it off, then, Master Jaken?"

"And why would I do that? So you can tempt him with your silly plant? No!"

As he gave this predicable response, the demoness considered him. "Okay," she replied. "If you're afraid of him, then I'll just-"

"Afraid!? Who said anything about being afraid?" The imp stomped his foot. "Disrespectful dog! I'm not afraid of this dumb beast!" He jumped up and quickly freed Un and then Ah. "Those with superior intellect never need fear-" He screamed as Ah took his head in his mouth and lifted him off the ground.

"I thought you said he was an herbivore," Fuko said, crossing her arms in front of her and lifting one hand to cover her grin. She had thought about shaking the toad just like that a few times in the past two days.

After a few minutes, Jaken escaped. Both dragons had their necked arched in affront, but when Fuko presented the fronds again, Un relented. He took a mouthful and munched contentedly so Fuko took a chance and patted his neck. Like most dragons she'd met, he wasn't cold to the touch, but when she petting the skin where his neck joined his chest, it was cool. "Not a fire breather, huh? Let me think about that." Un looked down at her, still chewing. She looked from him to Ah, who had put his head back down and was ignoring her. "Your brother doesn't want any? I thought it would be a really nice treat."

Un chittered at Ah and Ah grunted and turned his head even further away.

"That's okay." Fuko put the rest of what she'd picked on the ground and then bowed to the unusual brothers. "Later, you two." She made her way over to the fire, aware that Ah had started sniffing the fronds as soon as she turned around. Contrary dragon.

The demoness arranged the four clay cups she'd pulled from the soil, poured in that special polite way that had been drilled into her head by the woman who’d raised her, and then she served Rin her cup.

"Thank you, Fuko-san!" Rin lifted the cup, sampled the tea, and then gave a satisfied sigh. "Perfect."

"Why, thank you." She nudged the third cup toward the girl and, in the spirit of being nice, said, "Why don't you go serve Master Jaken, and I'll take Lord Sesshomaru his cup?"

Her sweet brown eyes brightened and she beamed. Fuko thought she would reach out and hug her, but she only nodded and said, "Okay!"

The little girl shot off, amazingly not scalding herself with the tea, and Fuko carefully took her tea and the cup intended for Lord Sesshomaru in each hand. As she stood and turned, she reminded herself of all the times she'd rehearsed what she would say and only to have the words come out awkward and stilted. So, she didn't think and approached the daiyoukai as she would anyone else who could potentially kill her, but might not do it right that second.

When she reached him and stood as close as she had ever been without her spear in her hands, he didn't acknowledge her. He'd heard her say she was coming over, she was sure. After a few moments, she began to lose interest in gaining favor and simply wanted him to take the tea. How long would he make her wait? They still needed to take their bathes, didn't they? And she had assumed that they would also be washing Rin's clothes, since the kosode would be just as dirty as the girl.

She sidestepped into his direct line of vision and crouched. "Tea?"

Amber eyes snapped into focus and Fuko felt a little like she had touched a charged electrical wire. Could electricity be so cold? Hmm. She held out his cup.

…He took it and his claws grated audibly over the fired clay.

She waited, staring into his emotionless eyes, and then she renewed her patience and waited some more. _So cold._

Not dropping her gaze, he took a slow sip.

She copied him and her ears bobbed. "Sorry. There's too much jasmine in the blend, isn't there?"

His eyes narrowed and then they unfocused to ignore her again. Confused, Fuko returned to the cooking fire and took another sip of the tea (which, if truth were to be told, _did_ taste a little too strongly of the flower). She considered the micro-expression that had crossed Lord Sesshomaru's face. It had been chilling, yes, but it also showed the roiling anger hiding behind his façade. An offer of tea hadn't helped at all. To keep the eruption on the horizon from happening, she would have to do something before he did. It was part three of her plan to keep Rin from being over-stressed, and though it was a variation on part two, she thought that the enormity of the task deserved special treatment.

Really, she wasn't looking forward to it at all. He had already decided not to like her and making friends with adults was far more complicated than making friends with children. 'Complicated' wasn't her favorite word for it. 'Dangerous' was too harsh, but only by a hair. That was how she felt, anyway. She could count on her fingers the number of adults she had developed friendships with. She was awkward when alone with them and she knew it.

It was a fault born from her childhood. Looking back on those early years, she remembered that she'd never liked big people. In the human village that was the first home she could recall, the adults had ostracized her, blaming her for whatever bad luck they could twist into a sign from the kami. And then her first encounter with an adult youkai almost ended in live digestion. Over time and with a lot of trial and error, she'd learned to deal with the older people that she encountered, but even now she had to admit to herself that she was only truly comfortable around adults when she knew she could escape.

Shaking her memories away, she focused on the child in front of her. Rin was visibly excited about the nice thing Fuko had done for her lord, but she seemed to recognized that it hadn't been a complete success. "Did he like the tea?" she asked in a loud whisper.

Fuko replied at the same volume. "I'm not sure. I think I didn't measure it correctly."

During continued polite tea conversation, she encouraged Rin to drink three full cups, trying to optimize the effects of the orange rinds, and then she stacked their two empty cups and asked, "Ready for a bath?"

"Yes!" The girl stood and said quickly, "I bathe with Ah-Un when he's with us! Do you want to bathe with me and Ah-Un?" It must have been a rhetorical question, because she looked over Fuko’s head to where the daiyoukai sat without waiting for a reply. "Lord Sesshomaru, can I take a bath with Fuko-san and Ah-Un?"

"Do as you please, Rin."

"Yay!" then, in an aside to Fuko, she whisper-screamed, "That means yes. Let's go!"

Ah-Un needed no direction to the hot spring and Rin followed him without hesitation. Rather than sniff it out, she followed the girl.

The spring turned out to be really nice. It was a perfect oval with a sandy bottom and large black boulders ringing the far edge. It was set near a ridge made of the same dark stone and fit so naturally with the surroundings that it was easy to pretend that the spring had been there for centuries. She especially appreciated the fact that it didn't have that sulfurous scent that some of the hot springs she'd visited gave off.

Rin shed her clothes as soon as the water was in sight, shouting with glee and racing toward it. She knew better than to rush right in, didn't she? Apparently not. The girl didn't slow as she got within five feet and Fuko could see her intention to jump in, so she kicked off her boots and raced there ahead of her, startling her into stopping at the water's edge.

"Let me check the temperature, you fearless little girl!" Fuko said playfully, and then dipped one delicately clawed toe in the water. "Oooh, that's nice. But remember, hot springs can be unpredictable. Some of them look inviting, but will boil you alive." The girl goggled and Fuko laughed. "This one's safe enough." She gestured grandly. "Your bath awaits, my lady."

Rin grinned and bowed to her, speaking in solemn tones, "Thank you very much, Fuko-san." She then dipped her foot in the water just as she had and said, "Oh, that's very hot!"

"Go slowly," Fuko advised and turned to Ah-Un. "Are you two getting in?"

They vocalized and settled down on the shore.

"Right." Fuko collected her boots and walked over to where Rin had left her clothes, pulling at the knot of her obi as she did so. "Aren't you going to wash this, Rin-chan?"

"After!" she answered, already waist deep in the water.

Fuko picked up her clothes and laid them on a convenient rock, then finished disrobing and put her clothes there as well, along with her spear. Then, she pulled a stringy dried root from the folds of her clothes and returned to Rin. Once they were both seated up to their shoulders with their heads wet from dunking a few times, she showed Rin the sudsy properties of the root and they spent a few minutes making as many bubbles as possible. Then, she stood the girl up and encouraged her to use the bubbles for their intended purpose and scrub herself.

She had finished washing the girls back and was sitting in the water to allow her to return the favor when Rin asked, "What happened to your hair right here, Fuko-san?" The girl tugged a lock at the back of her head. "It's much shorter than all the rest."

"What?!" Fuko reached back and felt around. Sure enough, the section of hair that Rin had pulled ended only at mid-back. The rest reached mid-bottom as usual. "Aw, man! What…? Wait. That's right…"

At one point in her battle with Sesshomaru, his whip had nearly touched her face and she'd been forced to duck to avoid being blinded. He must have connected with her braid. Now that she thought about it, her hair had come undone just before he wrapped that hazardous weapon around her spear. It had never occurred to her to braid it again since. She pouted to herself. The hair tie she'd used to bind the rope of hair at the bottom had been a gift! She'd had it so long that it had started to fray. She’d been meaning to repair it. "Shoot," she grumbled, ears drooping.

"What's wrong?" Rin asked. "Are you sad about your hair? You can't tell unless you comb your fingers through it." She demonstrated and Fuko could feel where she came up short.

"Nooo. I'm not sad, really. It will grow back. I just realized that I lost my hair tie."

"You can use mine," Rin offered.

Fuko spun and cupped the little girl's face. "Squee! Aren't you just the most darling little human? You're so cuuuuute!"

They both dissolved into giggles, and then into a splash fight which involved a lot of squealing and shouting. After a few minutes, Ah-Un, who had stayed well away from their tom-foolery, groaned at them and stood. Fuko could guess the reason. The daiyoukai's aura was doing that malevolent roiling again and it felt as if he was expanding it toward her.

"Wait, wait! Rin, wait!" She finally had to pick the girl up, lifting her out of reach of the water to stop her from splashing. "I think your Lord Sesshomaru wants us to finish up. He's poking me with his youki."

Rin squirmed in the air. "Okay! It's cold up here!"

Fuko placed the girl back in to water, suffered one more splash, and then leapt out of the pool and far onto the shore. Then she shook, flinging water high and far, earning peals of laughter from Rin and warbling protests from Ah-Un.

The girl started to wade out, but Fuko stopped her. "Just a second, Rin-chan. Stay." She pulled wads of leaves and bark from a low hanging branch and foxed them into a bath-sheet. "Okay, come here quick."

Rin floundered out of the water and paused to shake, mimicking her and earning much the same reaction. Fuko trotted over and started to rub the still-wet girl down with the cloth. It seemed that she didn't have the same mastery over shaking herself dry as Fuko had, but it was just as well. As a dog demon, she'd always been best at it.

"What is this, Fuko-san?" Rin asked when Fuko walked away get to her clothes. She picked at the cloth that swaddled her head to toe. "It's really soft, but it's rough too."

"It's terry-cloth." Fuko explained the exotic cloth and how she came to know of it as she pulled on her clothes and brought Rin hers. Then she said, "I don't think we have time to wash this properly, so I'll clean it quickly with my fox fire, okay?"

Rin nodded and bunched the bath-sheet tighter around her. Fuko made quick work of it, and then gave the child's head a final through drying before letting her drop the sheet and dress. After they quickly finger-combed their hair and Rin fixed her little pony-tail, the girl child stretched contentedly. "Thank you, Fuko-san," She said, and then yawned.

Fuko offered her another piggy-back ride, but Rin insisted that she wasn't tried. When they made it back to the others, Jaken yelled at them (mostly Fuko) for taking so long while Lord Sesshomaru looked on. He stood on the edge of the clearing, clearly waiting for them to be ready. At least he had calmed his youki, Fuko thought.

The day camp was deconstructed and the fox magic wares were returned to their original states, which were dirt, rocks and leaves. Before they left, Lord Sesshomaru ordered Rin to ride Ah-Un and then the pace he set was demanding. Eventually, Jaken had to ride the beast, too. They spoke sparingly in the hours leading to dark and, when they made camp, Rin immediately started pulling out her bedding, not even thinking about food.

Jaken practically burst a blood vessel while scolding the girl, telling her she was stupid and ungrateful for not being hungry when he'd gone to all the trouble of bringing her something to eat. This was the angriest Fuko had ever seen Jaken get at Rin. Just as she started to get watery-eyed, Sesshomaru snapped.

"Silence." Jaken fell to the ground as the demon lord's boot ground into his back. "If finding Rin a few scraps to eat is too much work for you, Jaken, then perhaps you would prefer that I give your role to someone else." The imp started to protest, but he was cut off with a quiet growl. "You are trying my patience."

The toad cowered for only two seconds after the daiyoukai moved away, but then he leapt up and wordlessly took Rin's dinner over to the quiet little girl. Rin began eating steadily.

Fuko watched her eat alongside Jaken, offering silent encouragement with her eyes. She hadn't stepped in because she, unlike the mouthy imp, had noticed Lord Sesshomaru's youki growing tense. It was apparently his role to keep Jaken from berating the little girl. As she resolved from the beginning, she had no intention of usurping anyone's position.

Though she was tired, Rin was a little too jazzed from the confrontation to fall asleep as easily as she had the last two nights. She lay on her tummy for a long time, looking around at everyone in the camp. Finally, she said, "Thank you, Master Jaken."

He was quiet for a second before answering, "You are welcome, Rin."

She wiggled around. "Goodnight, Master Jaken."

He crossed his arms and hunched his shoulders. "Goodnight, Rin."

She smiled softly and her eyelids started to droop. "Goodnight, Ah. Goodnight, Un."

The beast(s) rumbled companionably.

"Goodnight, Fuko-san."

"Goodnight, Rin-chan."

She squirmed and closed her eyes. "Goodnight, Lord Sesshomaru."

"Goodnight, Rin. Go to sleep."

Fuko could sense that the girl was already sleeping when she mumbled in answer, "Yes, milord."

As soon as Rin was sleeping deeply, Lord Sesshomaru left. Fuko wondered where he was going but reminded herself that everyone needed privacy and decided to think about something else.

Like Jaken. His outburst toward Rin seemed more stress-induced than anything, and if his constant battering of her eardrums was any indication, she was the focus of his true anger. But why did her presence upset him to the point where he would lash out at Rin like that? As far as she knew, she hadn't done a thing to the little youkai. Except in defense, when he was too loud or too annoying.

Fuko's gaze flicked over Rin and Ah-Un, who were sleeping, and then she looked to Jaken, who was sullenly poking at the camp fire with a stick. He must have felt her gaze, because he glanced over his shoulder. When he saw her looking at him, he scowled and opened his mouth—but then closed it when she pointed to Rin.

Why was he so ready to yell at her? She moved toward the fire, intent on finding out. "So, Jaken," she said with affected casualness, settling down next to him. "Do you have something you want to say to me?"

His mouth opened wide and he said half a word at full volume, but she made a violent cutting motion with her hand and directed his gaze to the sleeping Rin once again. He began anew, grumbling in low tones while clutching his staff in his lap. " _Yes_. I _do_ have something I want to say to you. Treacherous female." He muttered some more mean-spirited things, and then said, "I demand to know what you did to Lord Sesshomaru."

She blinked. "What I did to Lord Sesshomaru?"

He growled impressively, for an imp. "Don't pretend. Two days before you began traveling with us, milord received a mysterious missive. A day passes without word and then he comes back with you tagging along. Lord Sesshomaru was intent on ending you, toymaker, after days of your damned evasive cowardice. I demand to know how you bewitched him!"

"Oh, I suppose you never did learn what happened," she murmured. "The note was mine. I left it under your hat while you slept." He started sputtering but she continued over it, "I challenged your Lord Sesshomaru to a duel with the stakes being my following him versus… I think he wanted my life, but he never made that quite clear. Anyway, I won."

The toad lifted his staff and swung at her head, but she caught it and pulled it out of his hands. " _Now_ what?" Perturbed, she shoved him to the ground when he flew at her face with little claws slashing. She kept her hand on his back while he flailed and this lasted for a surprisingly long time, but her hand was nigh but immovable for the kappa youkai.

Panting, he finally snapped his first coherent words since his attack, "You could never have beaten Lord Sesshomaru!"

Fuko rolled her eyes and removed her hand. "That's how it turned out. What do _you_ think happened?"

He jumped up, huffing and puffing. "You-you must have…" The imp threw up his hands. "I don't know! He never tells me anything! But I'll make sure you don't take advantage of him again! I swear it! I may not be able to kill you, but I'll make your life miserable until you leave him alone!"

She cocked her head. "So you're trying to drive me away to protect Lord Sesshomaru?"

"Yes!"

Truly confused, she asked, "But, why?"

"You want to know _why_? Lord Sesshomaru might appear detached on the outside, but inside he is a roiling mass of emotions! I've been following him for decades and I can tell when he's distressed! He meant to kill you, now he glares and broods! You're traveling with us, which Lord Sesshomaru would never have allowed! You tricked him and I won't let you get away with it! I owe him far too much to ever allow a mutt like you to get the best of him!"

With this fit of words, Fuko understood and was amazed. "You're very devoted to him, aren't you?"

He looked affronted. "Of course I am! It's a privilege to serve such a great and noble lord. I owe Lord Sesshomaru my life!"

Fuko rested her chin on heels of her hands and pricked her ears. "Please tell me that story, Master Jaken."

The kappa paused, his ire abating. Maybe it was something in her eyes, or maybe he just couldn't resist the opportunity to extol on his lord's merits, but he began spinning a tale of strife, war, and then a gleaming moment of salvation. By the time his tale was through, Jaken was seated across from her, his eyes shining with treasured memories. "When I thought my life was at its end, Lord Sesshomaru appeared and saved me. He destroyed the enemy with scarcely a flick of his wrist. He was so powerful, so regal, so awesome in his stature. I vowed to serve him that very instant. When he gave me the Staff of Two Heads, it was the proudest moment of my long life." Unshed tears collected in the corners of his eyes. "To know that this lowly vassal could be of use to such a great demon…!"

She gave a watery smile, moved to tears as well. "You fell in love with him."

Jaken fell forward, face-planting, which surprised a laugh out of Fuko. He popped up from the ground and sputtered loudly, "W-w-w-what?"

Aware of Rin moving in her sleep, Fuko waved her hands in front of Jaken in an effort to shush him and continued quietly, "When you saw him, your heart, perhaps your very soul recognized your true calling!" She clenched her fists, nailing him with a look of intensity. Her youki sparked. "When you followed him, leaving all of your past behind, you followed your heart, Master Jaken! To feel such purpose, to find your reason for being here, and then having the courage to _go for it!?_ That's not just commendable, that's amazing!" She leaned toward him and he leaned forward as well, entranced by her conviction. "At that moment, the moment you were moved to pledge yourself to him, weren't you enflamed, Master Jaken? Didn't your heart race?"

The kappa youkai nodded enthusiastically, weeping. "Yes! Yes, I was! It did! I knew it was my calling! I knew!"

"And it was what you wanted deepest in your heart, wasn't it? To be in the presence of such admirable power? Not because you wanted it for yourself, but because you wanted to bear witness to all that that shinning demon lord would accomplish?"

He leapt to his feet. "Yes! Yes!"

Fuko clapped her hands down on his shoulders, partially to keep him from flying apart, partially because it felt right. "You saw it, Jaken! When he saved your life, when he slew your enemies with such ease, you saw his potential and you believed in him! You've believed in him ever since!"

Overwhelmed with emotion, the imp pressed his face into his sleeve and blubbered. "It's all true! You understand, you truly understand!"

Fuko nodded, heart-felt. "You fell in love with him, and it was the love of a loyal servant!"

"I did! I did fall in love with Lord Sesshomaru!"

"Jaken!"

Fuko started and the imp exploded out from under her hands.

"LORD SESSHOMARU!" Jaken ran back and forth in an absolute panic, his face a festive mix of red and green. "My Lord! I-I didn't-! What I meant to say-! I-! My Lord, I-!"

Fuko clenched her fists again, youki sparking, and tried to offer encouragement. "Don't be ashamed of your love, Jaken! You are his loyal servant!"

He stopped and clutched his head, wailing at her, "You shut up, you foul wench! This is all your fault!" He spun, flailing his arms desperately. "Please, milord! I didn't mean to say it! She made me say it! I don't know what came over me! I never meant-"

The demon lord turned on his heel and strode back the way he'd come.

"Milord! Please, wait for me!" Jaken ran off into the dark, but Fuko heard a cry of pain and waited patiently as Jaken came back, dejected and newly bruised.

He plopped down in front of the fire beside her and they sat in silence for several moments before she spoke, "Neither of you may wish to say it and neither of you may wish to hear it, but you are his devoted servant, Jaken, and I believe he must love you very much."

The kappa youkai sputtered and turned away, but not before she noticed that his face was still very red. Smiling softly, she looked over at Rin, and then shook her head in disbelief. How could the girl sleep through that racket?

As the silence stretched, Fuko settled into her own thoughts again. It seemed, for all his foul temper toward her, Lord Sesshomaru was actually a decent person. He'd earned the love a little human girl, the devotion of a grumpy toad demon, and had a fascinating quasi-horse dragon with two heads that didn't always agree. He must be more special than she was giving him credit for. The combination of Rin's solemn statement and Jaken's abiding belief made her more determined to breach the gulf between them. So what if he was an adult? She was too, sort of. She could figure him out and gain a moment of understanding with him as she had with the imp. She would, and not only for Rin's sake.

But, as the conservative goals of part three of her current working plan showed, that was easier said than done. Plus, Ah wasn't yet comfortable with her and all she could hope from this first half-pleasant exchange with Master Jaken was his lessened inclination to drive her away. Right. So, first things first.

Fuko puzzled over what she had observed of the Western Lord in hopes of finding a way to put him at ease. She made some educated guesses, the first of them being that he loved Rin. The girl child saw him as a father of sorts and Fuko decided that he must see her as his child. He listened to her whenever she spoke to him and, despite he's habitual silence, she reacted to his quiet grunts as if he'd actually spoken. They understood each other. Fuko had no reference for how long they'd been together, besides the fact that the girl appeared to be nine or ten and remembered her first family somewhat. That could mean that he’d raised her for anywhere from one to five years, not even accounting the vague 'long time' in which the girl was alone.

Fuko's second guess was that the demon did at least appreciate Master Jaken. All she had really seen of the imp was bluster and minor magic wielding, but since he'd been in Lord Sesshomaru's company for decades, he must be very useful. Useful enough to outweigh his loud and needy nature.

Her third guess came from Ah-Un, and it was the dragon's easy disposition and general contentedness that convinced her that Lord Sesshomaru must be very responsible and patient. She had no way of knowing if the dragon was a favored and loyal steed or a convenient beast of burden, but she knew that he was well looked after. She had heard it said before that one could accurately judge someone by how they treated the animals under their care. By Ah-Un's measure, the inu youkai could be a saint.

She also considered some of the negatives that arose from analyzing his relationships with his little pack. Fuko had yet to see him embrace Rin, though he allowed her small contacts with his person and once laid his hand on her head as she spoke to him. This didn't really tell her anything new. It was obvious that he was a reserved person. He also seemed ready and willing to perpetuate Jaken's belief that he was perfect, though he'd made it violently clear to the imp that he didn't appreciate his constant praise. Did he really think that he was anywhere near infallible? Also, why wasn't Ah-Un free and in the wild? She sighed at this thought. That didn't reflect on Lord Sesshomaru's personality at all, just her views on animal rights.

Fuko refocused. What did this mean for her? He was reserved, as many adults were, and he had a massive amount of self-esteem. Her winning the challenge injured his pride, and his veiled anger told her that the injury was festering. He wouldn't want an apology. That would seem like pity. Maybe he'd like a re-match.

The idea ruminated in her mind and grew in strength. Now that she thought about it, he was a male, wasn't he? If she disregarded his age, this solution would be perfect. Tough boys growing up with a warrior’s instinct would often welcome a punch more than a hug. In fact, one of her favorite ways to pull any sulky kid out of his mood was to start a bout of rough-housing.

Come to think of it, Lord Sesshomaru had been sort of _sulking,_ hadn't he? Like a frustrated boy. And the healing of the Chikyukiba sometimes had the side-effect of nagging frustration. This was because, in order to speed healing, it returned a person's energies to one hundred plus percent by injecting the earth's vital force into one's aura. Without outlet for all that stored energy, no wonder he was acting like this! She smacked herself in the head with the heel of her hand. Of course sparring was the answer!

But how the heck was she supposed to start a friendly sparring match when he always seemed two minutes from ripping her head off? Fuko sighed. She would just have to watch for her moment.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

The next evening found the group on the upper ledge of a wide plain bisected by a ridge that boasted a twenty foot drop before continuing in the same grassy fashion. A series of small clear streams traversed the top, joining together at several points until they were one, and under the sliver of moon, the water shone silver before flowing over the ridge in a waterfall. Rin was enchanted by the location and raced about, jumping over the small streams, chasing crickets, laughing. It was a beautiful picture.

Sesshomaru could not appreciate the view when the female was a part of it, playing with Rin while Jaken tended the small fire. He could not appreciate the view while she smiled and laughed and slyly insinuated herself into his pack. And he could not appreciate the view when the whole of his baser instincts paced and growled inside him, as it had for days, slavering after the chance to prove his dominance.

He had kept his control when she bent Rin to her will with little more than a glance. She was just a child, unable to resist the lures of play and attention. He had simply looked on when she tried to bribe the dragon with food. At least one of the two heads had the sense at the time to remember where his allegiance should lie. Jaken had been the only hold out after traveling just three days, but his resistance was failing. Sesshomaru had had a full night to stew over the unacceptable scene he had walked in on, Jaken _confiding_ in the interloper, an unspeakable thing, a _revolting_ thing—but, no. He had resolved not to think of that. This passed day of travel hinted at a future outcome that disgusted him.

She had done much the same as she had from the beginning, but the child, the dragon, and now the imp showed signs of accepting her presence unconsciously. That morning, Rin had happily eaten the rabbit that the female hunted for her, and at the midday stop, both heads of the dragon-beast had groaned blissfully as she scratched and petted them. Earlier, when Jaken had removed the dragon's saddle rigging and halter to oil them, he had allowed the female to help with barely more than ten minutes of insults. To him, her intentions were clear. By manipulating Rin's affections, ingratiating herself with the ryu-beast, and managing Jaken with appalling dexterity, she was trying to assume the position of alpha female, a role she had no business vying for and no hope of attaining. She would remain an interloper until he decided she was not, and he had no intention of doing so.

And she was doing a disgustingly poor job trying to convince him otherwise, he thought to himself as Rin ran over to the imp, panting, and fell onto her knees beside him. The female sat on the other side of the girl, telling her some nonsense he ignored, and then in a lull as Rin was distracted by food, she looked over and met his gaze. She did not drop her eyes, she failed to cringe or cower, she did not even have the good grace to be wary. No, she was not trying to convince him that she would make a good pack member, for, as evidenced by furious snarl of his inner beast, her bold gaze offended him to the core. She had been offending him this way increasingly since he allowed her follow him, and incessantly since the 'incident' of the previous night.

The veneer of polite society that overlaid the demon nobles across the land was in part only a cover for their base instincts, a series of reasoning and rules to keep them from devolving to the level of minor demons that were no more than strong animals. For this reason, the submissiveness of inu youkai females was more a means for enticing an attractive male than a trait bred or taught. A dog demon male's instincts would vie for the strongest female he could, for the good of any pups, but any self-respecting male would only choose the strongest he could dominate, for life under the thumb of a demoness meant more than dishonor. It frequently meant death, whether by a rival male or the female herself. The only way for a male to assure her complete faithfulness without instating a binding mating contract was to find the balance between her power and his weakness that would keep her fearful for her life if she betrayed him. An inu youkai female could be a sadistic shrew to a male she thought weak, and a demure little hime to one she was interested in trapping. Cunning along with strength was what a powerful demoness passed on to help her daughters gain status.

However, Lord Sesshomaru had no fear of being snared by a clever bitch. He was the most powerful among the inu daiyoukai and the inu had been proven in his father's time to be the most powerful youkai in the world. He dabbled and toyed with the female populace as he pleased with impunity, never siring children and never making any useless associations.

This particular female did not show submissiveness or attempt to challenge him for dominance. She was ignoring him, for all intents and purposes. Oh, she offered some paltry niceties when Rin directed her to, but she had yet offer any words of substance. Did she think, because she had beaten him once, he was of no use to her, whether it be for future alliances or fleeting pleasure?

No. Even she must realize he would crush her if the battle was fought on raw youki alone. She would also realize that he now knew where to strike in order to disable her and which of her tactics to beware of. Perhaps she was not searching for a tryst at the moment, though many supposedly settled females had offered him their bodies. That did not explain why she made no attempt to sway him toward her cause, whatever it may be. He glared at her back as she settled Rin into her furs to sleep and smoothed her hand over the girl's hair. She was certainly making a point to act maternal in his presence. Did she think he would be foolish enough to pup her?

She glanced at him again, but he had shifted his gaze to the far horizon. In the periphery of his vision, he saw the dipping movement atop her head and he's annoyance piqued. He found her ears utterly ridiculous and slightly offensive. As far as he knew, the gesture meant nothing, but it was off putting. She was an odd creature.

He stood and walked away from the camp the moment Rin was asleep, putting the disturbing female out of his head. For the past three days, he had taken them across an abandoned region in his direct route to the Western Lands. He understood that some foolish human warlord had torn through a year ago, and while the animals and forest had recovered, many of the demons and human peasants had yet to return. They were now on the edge of a heavily populated territory mostly controlled by forest demons and he knew some fool would eventually try an attack. He usually felt no more than mild annoyance at the lesser demons who mistakenly thought they were a match for him, but now he looked forward to reminding those in this backwater scrap of land what true power felt like.

Deeper into the forest, he found what he was looking for in the form of a giant demon asp, easily half again as big as his true form. Apparently, he had disturbed its feeding on a herd of deer, and it attacked viscously, but he learned its full measure in only a few dodges. Frustrated with its weakness, he obliterated it with his bare claws, an unnecessary show of strength that had not even offered any of the satisfaction he needed. Afterward, he could sense the nearby youkai had gone into hiding and he was even more deeply frustrated. He reluctantly headed back to camp.

He entered the open plain at the extreme opposite point of the group and walked across the lower plain to the crashing waterfall and then he paused before it. The pool at the bottom was deep and appealingly clear, but he was not tempted to swim. The pitifully short battle with the snake had merely whetted his appetites. If he went back to face that accursed female as he was, he would do something regretful.

As he often did when life did not put forward challenges when and where he wished, Sesshomaru laid aside his swords and started a kata. It began with a wide stance and meditation, which tapped into his youki and allowed for maximum control. It took longer than it should have to empty his mind and the knowledge of this exacerbated his distraction, but he mastered his thoughts in an adequate span of time. His power responded with an unusual vigor and he took the time to meticulously shape it into the proper form before he began the precise motions of the exercise. With his aura shimmering visibly along his skin, he began his first extension, feeling the total tautness of his body and focusing on relieving it.

After some time, he completed his first kata and began a more strenuous one, not satisfied with the previous results. His muscles were barely warmed when he started a third kata which was one of the most advanced he knew. It focused primarily on strength, but he adapted it to test his speed and precision as well. When he completed the exercise, he began it again without hesitation. During his fourth repetition, he felt a surge of frustration he had to beat back. It had thrown off his form for a split second and so he redoubled his effort to make up for the slip.

In the middle of his fifth run through, the female approached and leapt down from the cliff to land some thirty yards away. He did not allow her to distract him, though his youki flared and radiated from him with new intensity. He had yet to achieve his aim and his body hummed like a taut bowstring. He was completely aware of her every movement when she sat in the grass, though he did not shift from his perfect form. She remained silent and watchful as his brought the kata to its conclusion after nearly twenty minutes. He turned to her then and glared, but, as usual, she did not flinch. She sat with her legs folded and her hands in her lap, looking greatly entertained.

Inside, he growled and felt sorely tested by his struggling beast. His continuing inability to decipher what she wanted only added to his anger.

"You move like a war song, Lord Sesshomaru," she said, smiling at him. "It's alarming!"

He stared, considering her words for a few moments before disregarding them. "Why are you here?"

She stood. He watched with interest as she unlimbered her weapon, but then she casually dropped it to the ground. "Let's spar, okay?" His eyes widened slightly as she removed her obi and then her kimono, revealing a plain cloth kosode that showed slightly more of her thighs. "No weapons, no claws." She tossed her clothes over her weapon and turned to him with fists raised in an odd stance. "No armor." She boxed the air a few dozen times in a second, taunting him with that impressive speed. Her smile was cocky. "Ready?"

It was an absurd proposal. He had never sparred with a female in his life, and though he had battled and even killed enough of them, it had never crossed his mind to _train_ with them. Perhaps this was another ploy to gain the status of alpha female. From the battles of his youth, he could guess what might arise from any contact of the non-lethal verity with an unmated female demon. Obviously, she would try to initiate more intimate acts.

He should tell her to put her clothes back on, but he would not give her the satisfaction of knowing the sight affected him. He's reaction meant nothing except that he enjoyed sex with females and he was not a slave to his instincts. He should ignore her and continue with his kata, or simply leave. The bitch was goading him as she did with Jaken. Giving in would be extremely ill advised.

But, even as all this occurred to him, he removed his armor and outer kimono, laying them on the ground. He oriented on her, forcing his raging beast into the back of his mind. Never mind what he should or should not be doing, it was foolish of her to offer her enemy an excuse to attack. Ready? He had never been more so.

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**Next time!**

**Chapter 6: Odd Thoughts**

 


	6. Odd Thoughts

**Hello! I don't own Inuyasha. This is fan fiction. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon. Youki- demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai- great demon. Mokomoko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad. Dokkaso- Sesshomaru's poison. Hime- princess. Kami- gods. Hebi- snake. Oni- those troll/ogre type demons? You know. The ugly ones with horns.

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**Chapter 6: Odd Thoughts**

The two danced across the dew strewn meadow, forcing the morning fog to swirl and eddy in ever-growing patterns around their feet. They were a vibrant pair. Their youki flowed around them in crashing waves, complementary to the fog and contrary to each other, and while their clashing auras did not quite break into the visible spectrum, evidence of the intensity could be tasted. The crisp salt scents of their sweat perfumed and enhanced the latent ionized tang in the air. They moved so quickly that they appeared blurred to the simple eye, their shadows flitting over dirt and grass with a phantasmal quality. But, really, there was no mistaking them for the disembodied.

And then, with a discordant thud and a sudden flash of violet light, Fuko was driven back from the melee, breaking the rhythm of their exchange. The female inu youkai clenched her right fist and gave the arm a vigorous shake, dispelling the pervasive numbness that came from taking the direct force of Sesshomaru's blow. Her grin was a little too wide as she flicked damp locks of hair away from her face and regarded him.

He realized, of course, that his last blow had a bit too much youki behind it, but it was only to be expected. The energy build-up in this clearing was making the fur on his mokomoko stand on end. Still, it was vexing have been the one to lose control, and he acknowledged this miscalculation with a slight and grudging nod.

"Hold it," she called, and then dropped her defenses to stand casually.

He chose not to follow suit and instead watched as she turned away from him and tilted her head slightly, ears flicking as she appeared to listen.

The female raised her hands and flexed the fingers slowly. When blue light began shimmering over her knuckles, she clapped her palms together and tiny nothing bolts of blue youki sizzled and popped through the air in response, spending the charge there with nothing more destructive or lasting than a light show. Sesshomaru's skin still prickled apprehensively when the crackling wave washed over him. He would not forget that she was a spell-caster any time soon.

When the lights faded, she assumed yet another fighting stance. Her leading foot swept across the grass as she fell into her crouch, her center of gravity lowered considerably, but final result was a perfect pose from which to leap. This stance was as unfamiliar as the others had been, but he speculated that her next series of attacks would center on either low-kicks or aerial strikes.

She growled throatily, the sound like a rumble of thunder coming after that blue lightening. He responded to her wordless question with little more than a narrowing of his eyes, but this was enough. She chuffed once, softly, before launching forward.

Again, the two clashed, with swirling fog, reverberant power, percussive thuds, and ozone scent building. Sesshomaru struck high and fast to test the defenses of this new stance, choosing to come at her from above. She blocked, but the last strike in the chain broke through her defenses and grazed her right side, surely leaving a bruise. She caught his overextended arm and used his momentum to switch their positions, flipping herself into the air and forcing him to the ground and wrenching his arm in the process. He tucked into an evasive roll just as she drove a knee into his back, which lessened the force and broke her grip on his arm.

She swept his feet out from under him just as he regained them, but he caught himself and cuffed her ear from his new position, a move which had the added benefit of disorientation and aided him greatly when her sweeping kick took his arm out from under him. He stumbled slightly on his recovery, but she spent that lost instant in retreat, shaking her head in an effort to stop the ringing in her ears.

By the time he found his balance, she was prepared to show him the offensive capabilities of this new form.

He had learned that the general advantages she wielded against him as a fighter were variance in her style and her speed. Her technique, while at first seeming to be a completely arbitrary mix of unfamiliar or half-formed styles, proved far too formidable to be amateur. Despite all his expectations, which he had already started to discount out of hand, she had trained under some master to learn to the martial arts. The speed, while impressive in her hands, was unmatchable in her feet. Her counter strikes, when in the form of kicks, were particularly punishing. It was annoying to realize he would have bruises from this little singularity of a sparring match. It was doubly annoying to realize that she was holding back in that regard, purposefully punching when she could kick.

It was definitely her speed frustrating him now. She leapt up and attacked from above, proving his theory on the style she had chosen. After suffering a barrage of punches for which he could find no rhythm to counter-act, she repelled his retaliating strike, sweeping it to the side, and then struck ruthlessly at his lower left side.

He leapt backward, wary of another close-quarters bout, but she pounced again with that relentless series of rapid punches and he was forced to engage. He took another barrage of hits to his left side when he attempted to block each individual punch, so he switched into a defense stance with his arms blocking his vital points, meaning his forearms were again pelted. However, in her eagerness, he was able to draw her forward into a position where her belly was partially exposed from below. The angle was awkward, but the force of his knee driven upward set her aback, and his following kick sent her further still.

She maintained her footing, but his punishing blows were enough of a deterrent to keep her from rushing in again. He began sidestepping cautiously, circling and analyzing her, trying to predict her next movement. As he flexed the muscles in his arms to dispel the ache, he noticed the enveloping heat that suffused his body and the wisps of fine white hair that stuck to his brow from the sweat. His breathing, though deep and even, was just short of a pant.

It soothed his pride to see that she was in much the same condition, sweating, panting. She circled slowly opposite him, sidestepping in perfect tandem.

Sesshomaru knew the dangers of irrelevant contemplation in the middle of a match, but he wondered at his situation for a brief moment while they stalked each other, both unable to gain ground and unwilling to concede it. He had wanted a true blood-letting, bone-snapping battle, like the challenge. He had wanted to beat her down, whip her so soundly that she would never again be able to look upon him without cringing. He had wanted her to finally see what was so obvious to him, that she was utterly outmatched.

He had not assumed this would be easy, but he had certainly thought that it would be simple. Had it been a matter of engaging her seriously without giving her the edge of underestimation, she would be that whimpering, submissive wreck he had envisioned at the start by now. But, she possessed an untold wealth of tactical knowledge and expressed it bodily with unbelievable skill. The instant the match began, he had no recourse but to focus on the present and little else, with no time to taunt or manipulate her into raising the stakes of the fight. It was galling to realize now that he had underestimated her _again_.

In one instant she was side-stepping, in the next she had lunged at him. Nearly taken by surprise, he pivoted just in time to dodge and moved to strike at her back, only to have his fist meet the flat of her palm as she redirected and jabbed at his left side. Pain flared, and he countered on the recoil, snapping the back of his fist across her jaw. She went with the blow, stepping to the side, and then stepping back to lessen the force behind his following punch to the gut. This began a backward march, Fuko keeping just ahead of him by bobbing and weaving to avoiding his fists.

He drove her all the way back to the pool at the base of the waterfall. Two more quick steps had her in water up to her shins and she glanced down quickly in telling surprise. He pressed the attack with a predator's anticipation, stepping onto the surface of the water, using momentum and youki to keep from sinking. She finally floundered with water up to her waist and a swift kick set her back and off her feet, submerging her. Sesshomaru leapt backward, landed on the shore, and then stood panting and pleased, waiting for her to charge out of the depths.

Just as the surface of the pool was calming, a jet of water erupted toward him. He dodged right, which only set him in the path of the torrent that followed after. Undercover of the deluge, she darted forward and drove an elbow into his chest. When she followed that up by hooking a leg around the back of his knee, he instantly knew she was unbalancing him for a throw—and still could do nothing to stop it.

Even as he was plunged into frigid water with an explosion of froth and bubbles, he focused his youki in the white-silver fur that trailed behind him. The mokomoko struck out and coiled like a python around her head as if it had eyes of its own, and then lifted her, flinging her over him and deeper into the heart of the pool.

The insult of being drenched and then tossed so easily may have pushed him into actions that were, upon immediate reflection, petty and unworthy of someone of his station.

It took a second for Sesshomaru to right himself in the broiling water and he stood to find that the churned pool that was once so clear only came to mid chest. His ears were flooded, his nose not much better, and both of their auras so clouded the air that he could only guess at her position. He marked the still rippling water where she had gone in and scanned the surface for a sign of movement.

Fuko exploded upward from behind him just as he was turning with a sense that an attack was imminent, but instead of lashing out, she flopped belly first over his face, tackling him into the depths of the pool. Sesshomaru turned quickly to keep water from pouring in to his nasal cavities, twisting away from her in the process. His next sensation was one he had never experienced before, and one he had never planned to experience in his life, but one that he recognized instantly. There was a boot on the back of his head, pushing him face first down toward the muck.

He had the presence of mind to hold his arms ridge in front of him and grimaced in disgust as they sank into the gritty sediment up to his forearms. He yanked his arms out and was faced with a thick cloud of disturbed silt. His nose wrinkled even though he could not smell it—he could taste the collective filth of years washed down stream.

He hadn't the wherewithal to school his expression or quell his emotions. He was still living in that previous moment, that preposterous sensation. She had stepped on his head.

_How dare she?_

When he broke the surface seconds later, he found her floundering out of the water with thick reddish clay caked over the back of her kosode. A burst of anger-fueled youki propelled him out of the pool and onto the land ahead of her, and the second he alighted, he turned to unleash his ire.

But the words never formed on his tongue, and his hands froze at his sides before he could ever reach for her throat. While her clothing had been plastered with clay on the back, the front was unmarred, pristine even, and now all but transparent. For the first time in a long time, possibly since his birth, Sesshomaru was at a loss as to what to do next, or even what to think or how to react.

He was not an idiot. He could see and scent as plain as day that this Fuko of the North was a female. An attractive female, in her own way. He had taken note of her attributes and his own response to them the moment they met. Both were negligible and manageable by his estimation. And yet, one look at her near-naked body stayed his hand and made him completely forget what had made him so furious.

She took the last few steps out of the pool and stood in front of him, holding her arms slightly out to the sides as if in offering. "Look at this," she said, a bit of a whine in her tone. "I’m filthy. But then, you're not much better, are you?"

She turned to the side, presenting the curve of her rear and breasts in profile, and lifted her arm, pulling the fabric taunt over her skin. "I hope this doesn’t stain. Maybe we shouldn’t have gone for a swim…” Fuko glanced up at him then and blinked at his odd expression. Was something wrong? “Hey, Sessh- Lord Sesshomaru?"

Sesshomaru stiffened, coming back to himself. He immediately turned away from her.

He now faced the waterfall, and he stared at it for a moment before quickly striding toward it. She called after him, but he would not, could not turn back. Harsh emotion roiled through him: anger and frustration being the most immediately familiar, confusion a recognizable if rare addition, joined with things he had thought he left behind in adolescence like embarrassment, awkwardness, and a fiery hormonal lust. He felt alien to himself, which only fueled the anger, which then burned over into resentment. He wondered bitterly what she had done, if it was some sort of trick or spell woven around him that was making him feel and react this way.

He stepped into the curtain of cold water and stood unflinching under the onslaught, watching the water blast the dirt from his skin and clothes. He lifted his palms to the downpour and splayed his fingers back to let the water cleanse the mud from his claws.

She stepped into the shower next to him, but he refused to look. Instead, he tilting his face up and let the water wash his hair back. The temperature of the water, while not unbearable, was affecting his body in much needed ways, cooling his blood and clearing his mind. In a few more moments, he was again centered, feeling more like himself. He had seen nothing that he had not seen before. She was just another female, with the same general look of all the rest. And, just this once, this common sight inexplicably transmuted all his offended rage into arousal. It was odd, but it was nothing to wonder at.

He stepped out of the waterfall and then raked his claws through his hair in one smooth stoke as he moved toward the rest of his clothing, which had been left on the other edge of the clearing. Again, she sidled up behind him, but he kept his eyes forward.

The sun was above the horizon and though the lingering reds of sunrise hinted that it had not been long since its ascent, Sesshomaru cursed himself for not keeping track of the time. The others were probably awake. They had most likely taken note of his absence and hers. Jaken would lose his tiny little mind when they returned together. Sesshomaru answered to no one, but the thought of hearing his squawking, nasal voice raised to a volume higher than necessary in any situation set his teeth on edge.

The female suddenly darted forward, almost touching him. "Hey, is something wrong?"

He spun and regarded her with an icy glare, reminded of all the reasons why he had wanted to dig his claws into her stomach.

She stopped immediately and her ears fell back as if he had shouted, but she hadn't the sense to step back. "Oh. You're still mad."

His response was to press his youki outward from his skin in a concentrated burst, flinging water from his person, leaving him dry and everything around him wet, or wetter.

Again, this was petty, but he enjoyed watching her flinch back and her eyes widen in shock.

But then she laughed, proving not at all offended by his jibe.

Annoyed, Sesshomaru turned to continue on and retrieve his clothing and armaments, but then another spray of cold water hit his back.

Incredulous, he stopped and slowly looked over his shoulder, half expecting to see her running away, but, of course, she had no sense.

She smiled at him as she stood in her now semi-dry, appropriately opaque clothes, combing her claws through wild, damp hair. "You started it."

He stared for a moment longer, torn. He should want to gut her now. But he did not. So, Sesshomaru faced forward, determined not to look at her again. She was not worth all the attention he paid her.

The most he could summon at this moment was annoyance and a vague sense of vengefulness. At some point, she would pay for her offenses, but not this moment, for he was strangely empty of the raucous energies that had pledged him all night. His every limb was suffused with a kinetic heat that was both soothing and invigorating. It also seemed that his beast had quieted. The ominous sense of pacing inside him had subsided into a peculiar attentiveness. Annoyingly, it was focused on her. _He_ was was focused on her.

Even as he donned his clothes, armor, and weapons, and avoided the sight of her easily enough, he could not ignore her. He remained aware of her position, location, and he sensed her shake off the remaining water like a common animal. He felt her gaze on his back and heard the easing of her breath. He caught the faint edge of her laugh when he began combing his claws through his hair to straighten it and he wondered with annoyance why his grooming himself should be so amusing—and then he was more deeply annoyed that he noticed enough to be bothered. She was beneath him.

_She is beneath me,_ he said to himself, but his attention continued to stray toward the slight sounds of her approach, marking her conversational tone as she took up her own discarded clothing.

"We should head back, huh?"

He did not outwardly acknowledge her question, but it reminded him again of the time. She had distracted him for hours longer than he had planned. Exasperated, he quickly secured the last of his armor and then took up his sword belt, fastening it as he walked to the cliff face. When he passed her, he kept his eyes focused on his destination. Still, he managed to see her pulling taunt the final fold of the obi's bow behind her back. She limbered her spear just as he leapt into the air, clearing the lip of the cliff with precisely enough room to step forward and continue walking toward the campsite.

She leapt up after him, over-shooting the lip by several feet, and then fell into step at his side. "That was fun." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her ears bob. "It was a pleasure to spar with you."

Sesshomaru unwillingly absorbed the comment. She had enjoyed herself. He had as well. Why?

Since the emergence of Bakusagia, the sword forged from his own power, what challenge had he faced that was not tiresome in one way or another? He thought back to no avail. Naraku, the half-demon abomination, had underhanded tricks to turn a battle in his favor, but never truly had the power he had died trying obtain. Sesshomaru had known he could never lose to such a creature. No one truly notable had risen to challenge him in the time since the hanyou's destruction, though Sesshomaru had scoured the land searching for an assessment of his newly earned strength. Short of waging war with the kami, he had begun to think there was no one left to test himself against.

But now, he found that he could honestly echo her sentiment. Sparring with her had been, among many other things… fun.

Disturbed, he turned his attention toward the management of his followers. Rin was awake, and when he entered her line of sight, she leapt up from the ground, calling his name happily in her high-pitched voice. She looked to be in fine health and she ran to him with the usual energy. As if in competition, Jaken ran toward him and then fell at his feet, all the while wailing praise in near incoherence. His manner did not raise any alarms and it was always easy to tell if Jaken was unduly anxious. He was stepped on as a result of lying in Sesshomaru's path, of course. At least the toad was being somewhat less irritating than he had imagined.

Fuko stopped and picked Jaken up, which started the imp to wailing again. "Unhand me! Unhand me! Foul wench! What were you doing to Lord Sesshomaru? How dare you waste milord's time with your—"

The rest of his accusation was distorted by being flattened to the ground when she dropped him and then stepped on his back on her way into camp. "Good morning, Jaken," she said.

"Fuko-san, Fuko-san!" Rin stopped skipping at his heels and turned toward the female. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Rin-chan. Did you eat yet?"

"Mm-hmm!"

Their continued exchange rang in his ears, ruthlessly pricking his attention until he stopped and looked back. Jaken stood off to the side, shouting curses at them while Rin and the female stood, swinging linked hands and chattering at each other like two song birds. Or perhaps more like two little girls. While the behavior was not unusual, and on the contrary was exactly how they had behaved toward each other since their first meeting, the whole scene now had a surreal quality that set his nerves on edge.

"Jaken."

The imp froze for an instant. His name, said in that manner, usually presaged pain. "Y-yes, milord?"

"Decamp. Now."

"Y-yes, milord!"

The order set the rest to work as well. Sesshomaru moved toward the western edge of the clearing, keeping his eyes on his followers, only stopping when he would have disappeared into the tree line. He stared hard at the female as she flitted about the camp, alternating between helping the others and completing small tasks of her own, all the while conversing with Rin. A warrior, a woman, and now a child, she bounced between activities with a high energy that seemed wasteful. In just moments, the area was cleared. Jaken announced that they were ready.

They set out with Sesshomaru listening ahead for obstacles to his party, youkai or otherwise, and listening behind to the female's movements for his own reasons that were too numerous and tangled to be neatly addressed.

His quietly, foolishly mounting beliefs about the true circumstances of his defeat at her hands were shattered before they even fully formed. The demon lord could not tell himself it had been a fluke that kept them physically matched all of that evening into the light of dawn. He did not want to. He was interested now. She had his attention. But even this small development was tinged with a sense of incredulousness.

Truly, she had just seemed so… _childish_ over the past days of travel, with her constant play and chatter with Rin, her teasing and taunting Jaken, and her coddling of Ah-Un. But her training was far more extensive than her attitude suggested, or than he thought was even possible. This ridiculous little figure with her gaudily-dyed clothes and her hanyou-esque ears was, if not his equal, then at the very least in a league he had thought only inhabited by himself.

Sesshomaru questioned how he had misjudged her so thoroughly. He methodically went back to the first moment he laid eyes on her. In that flowered clearing, they had clashed for only a few moments, but she had kept up with him very well. He had not seen any significance in that. He had already decided she was too weak to be a threat to him.

Before that, then. He had sensed her approach. He had been foraging for Rin and he had felt her aura in the distance. It had been big and moving quickly toward those he had responsibility toward, but it had not been spectacular in any other way. It had been large, but shallow in a way that seemed overtaxed, like a lesser demon trying to seem more powerful.

Surprised, Sesshomaru considered her now, subtly running his youki over hers and testing her boundaries. It seemed just the same, large but shallow, or seemingly shallow. This was untrue, he knew. Her aura could rise up to meet his with no great effort on her part. So, why this appearance of weakness?

He began picking at the edges of her aura, sacrificing subtly for the sake of expediency. She seemed to pull into herself slightly, but her youki showed no sign of deepening. Ruthlessly, he delved, uncaring for her startled negative reaction. Her aura pulsed warningly and he heard a slight faltering in her exchange with Rin.

What he was doing was worse than rude, but he foraged on, needling into her aura until she broke off speaking entirely and he felt her eyes bore into his back.

"Fuko-san?"

"Hmm?"

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know, Rin-chan," she said and then called out to him, "Lord Sesshomaru, did you want something?" With this polite inquiry, she began probing sharply into his own aura.

He stopped, turned slightly, but not to look at her, only to acknowledge her words. She was giving him what he wanted, though it was more than a bit… uncomfortable. Examining her while she examined him, with their youki side by side doing similar things, made it easier to see the subtle dissimilarity, and he did not know what to make of it.

If auras were bodies of water that could be measured in span, depth, and clarity, a very minor demon might be a puddle, muddy or otherwise, of little consequence and only threatening in certain situations. An imp of Jaken's caliber would be a small stagnate pond, not deep enough to down a pig. Others might be streams, swamps, rivers, lakes, seas, and, of course Sesshomaru had the aura of an ocean— or a glacier, depending on his mood. When thought of in this way, Fuko's aura would not be a liquid, but a gas. To Sesshomaru's vast ocean of power, Fuko would be the equivalent in mass, an atmosphere.

While Sesshomaru did not think of it in quite that way, he understood the essential difference and recognized it as completely bizarre. He slowly pulled back from their quick invisible duel. "Hn."

She retreated as well. "You could have asked."

He resisted the urge to snort as he started the procession again, ignoring Jaken as he began berating the female for daring to flare her youki at his lord. Indeed, he could have asked. But that would have revealed his interest, and worse, his ignorance. Now that he could feel the difference between their auras, it was so obvious that he could not un-feel it, as if he had been confounded by writing on a scroll, only to realize the kana was upside down.

Why was her aura as it was and how did it become that way? Was she doing it purposefully, and if so, for what reason? Sesshomaru spent some time meandering through thoughts such as these, even briefly trying to mimic the odd composition by expanding his aura while still holding it at the same size. He could not and found the exercise to be self-defeating. While he was considering the possibility that she was carrying some enchanted object that disguised her power, Rin's voice pierced his concentration.

"Where did you and Lord Sesshomaru go this morning, Fuko-san? I wanted to wait and have breakfast with you, but Master Jaken wouldn't let me."

"Oh, we were down by the waterfall. We sparred."

Jaken interrupted, "Why would Lord Sesshomaru waste his time sparring with such a weak demoness?" But, they ignored him and continued talking around him as they had been all morning.

"You fought?" Rin's voice was edged with anxiety.

"No, no, Rin-chan. It wasn't serious. Sparring is like practice fighting."

"But, Lord Sesshomaru already knows how to fight."

"It's always good to practice. That's how you get better."

"Lord Sesshomaru is the best!" Her voice now held a note of flourish, and Sesshomaru was not surprised when she lapsed into song. As with all of her original work, the tune was simple and repetitive and there was no subtlety in the lyrics. "Lord Ses-sho-ma-ru! Big-gest! Strong-gest! With Baku-saiga, he can de-feat all the rest! Master Ja-ken! His Staff of Two-o Heads makes fi-ire! He tries very hard, but he gets ti-ired!" Over Jaken's loud protests, she continued, "Fu-uko-san, Fu-uko-san! Her spear—" the girl interrupted herself, “—Fuko-san, what's your spear's name? Does it have a name?"

“It does. I call it Chikyukiba."

"Why?"

"Oh… I think my father called it something like that. Fangs of stone, mountain fangs, piercing earth. I settled on Chikyukiba."

Again, Rin sang, but Sesshomaru honed in on that smallest bit of information. The weapon came from her father and she did not know its true name. The spear was not a great well of power like Bakusaiga or Tenseiga, which both radiated youki, but he knew it had some special qualities. It was unusual that an inu youkai male would leave a weapon to his female offspring at all, such things were left to the dam.

For the first time, Sesshomaru wondered what clan the female came from. What affiliations must she have? She could not truly be what she claimed, he had realized this shortly after she gave her title. The north hosted no particular dog clans, and those that scratched out a living on the northern tip of the main island were small, mindless, and weak, having almost no relation with the daiyoukai of the race, which ranged to the south. The northern most clan of any consequence was south of the Oga peninsula, but they were black inu and the strongest among them was hardly able to hold a humanoid shape. Some southern and eastern clans boasted daiyoukai, and a few within that group had brown or mixed-color fur, but only two were known to have demon marks of their own houses.

He envisioned the odd mark she had shown him on their first meeting. Since that time, it had been obscured by her hair which fell nearly into her eyes, but he knew he would have immediately recognized the mark of the House of the Mountain, or the House of the Sea. He considered that she may be from the mainland, but her Japanese was perfect and he had spent years on that continent, more than enough time to be able to recognize a denizen.

Sesshomaru eyes narrowed slightly. It seemed a bit to fantastic to believe and a bit too convenient. A daiyoukai who did not know the house their demon mark signified could believably claim anywhere or anything. They could even go so far as to establish their own house. And yet, she had claimed nebulous and unverifiable origins. The strangeness of her power, her aura, her appearance, and her mannerisms had distracted him from what should have been his main concern. Her motives were still suspect.

Behind him, the distinctive pattering of Rin's feet stopped—he surmised that she had been lifted off the ground. The female said, "Here, Rin-chan, ride Ah-Un for a minute."

"That's okay, Fuko-san. I'm not tired." Ah-Un's saddle creaked as the girl shifted to get down.

"Just for a moment, please?"

Rin sounded reluctant. "Okay."

The demoness began to approach and he anticipated fielding some request having to do with Rin, but it became clear what she really intended to say before she reached him.

Far beyond and behind them, several demon auras were conjugating. Some were ranging to the far sides to flank them and, while he smelled nothing but the forest around them and heard nothing but the chirping of birds and the scuttling of rodents, he could sense they were being watched from nearby. These other auras were also attempting to conceal themselves, but they were failing badly.

He lifted a hand to silence her just as she came within arm's length of him. "Jaken, take Rin and Ah-Un. Go now."

"Y-yes, milord!"

Sesshomaru turned to see Jaken scramble up the dragon beast's foreleg. Already aboard, Rin moved to make room and Sesshomaru noted the familiar look on her face. This child knew danger, but she did not cringe from it. She sat tight-lipped with a look of determination of her small face. Once Jaken was perched on his back, Ah-Un roared and charged into the sky, circling once before lifting higher and bearing his cargo off over the tree line. Just before Rin left his sight, he saw her face suddenly shift. Her eyes widened, her mouth fell open. Her voice was carried back to him thinly on the breeze. "We left Fuko-san!"

Next to him, she shouted back, "I'll be alright, don't worry!"

Sesshomaru placed a hand over the fur at his shoulder and raked his fingers over the plush softness, purely for the pleasure of sinking his claws into something. Of course, in Rin's eyes, this female was a playmate, but could she have so quickly forgotten that she was a demon and a warrior? Only moments before, they had discussed her spear.

The female interrupted his thoughts. "Sounds like snakes. They're rushing in now."

He could hear for himself the quiet roar of a multitude of scaled bodies passing through the undergrowth and he could guess what this farce of an ambush was about. As he began to walk forward along the trail, he spoke, "I will face them alone."

She tagged along behind him at a sedate pace and answered amiably, "No need. I'll help."

His youki flared slightly and his voice took on a hard, imperious edge. "I did not ask for your aid."

"Don't mention it."

He pivoted to face her and glared. Again, her ears flattened as if he shouted, but she didn't back down. "I will not repeat myself," he said.

In that same pleasant tone, she replied, "They’re going to attack me. So, I’ll fightm regardless of how you want this battle to go." She started walking again, passing him. "I won't sit on my hands and be slaughtered." She glanced back. "You should resign yourself to the idea."

His aura pulsed so fiercely that she jerked to a stop and faced him again with her hand half reached backward for her spear. Finally, there was some wariness in her gaze.

He spoke around a low growl. "Do not presume to tell me what I should do."

Her ears flicked forward, and then bobbed as her hand fell away from her spear. That flicker of hesitation fell away just that quickly. "I didn't mean anything by it. Do whatever you want."

"So good to have your permission," he snapped.

"You're deliberately misunderstanding everything I say." Her youki sparked. For the first time, he saw annoyance steal in her eyes, and it fired him.

He stepped toward her, aggressive. "Perhaps you do not speak with enough clarity or purpose."

She made fists at her sides. She seemed to puff up, leaning forward toward him as she demanded, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Do not play at stupidity. Though you do it well, I tire of the act."

She took a half-step forward. "I liked you better when you didn't talk!"

He bared his teeth slightly in a parody of a smile. "Then I will be sure to speak more frequently in the future."

"You-!"

A voice like grit and sand rang out, cutting her off. "Oh, don't let us interrupt you!"

Sesshomaru drew back sharply and in an instant the two inu stood back-to-back, weapons at the ready. They were surrounded by hundreds upon thousands of snakes of all lengths and thicknesses, slithering slow circles around their position. Even as he was assessing his enemy, the one who had spoken, who was a stoat green-skinned oni standing on the head of a massive black demon asp, he was still in the moment before, squaring off against a much more worthy opponent. The scent of her irritation still filled his nose and the edges of his aura still tingled from rough contact with hers. He chose not to dwell on the intimate proximity of their faces just before the intrusion.

The oni laughed. "That's better! I want you to see your ends coming, you sniveling dogs! I am Kuro, the snake-herder!"

The female called out, "What's this about? Why are you doing this? We have no quarrel with you."

"No quarrel?! You murdered my pet, Kodayama! In payment, I will take your lives and the lives of the weaklings you sent away!"

The great black asp reared back and hissed, which was echoed in chorus by the assembled reptiles. The snakes around them began to broil like a violent sea of scales, heralding a mass assault.

Sesshomaru's youki swelled malevolently and then flared higher still when he sensed hers swelling to match him. "Do not interfere."

Her voice deepened in a vague imitation of his own. "Do not presume to tell me what I should do."

He glanced at her sharply, nearly snarling. "Insolent whelp."

"And you're a bully!"

The oni roared, "You dare ignore me!?"

Fuko whirled and leveled her spear at him. "Go kick some rocks!"

This time it was a wordless roar and the hebi youkai surged forth together. Sesshomaru purposefully shoved passed her as he leapt toward the leader.

Even over the hisses and squeals of dying snakes and the thud of flesh hitting the ground, he heard her mutter, "Jerk."

A second later the demon lord was bringing his sword down on the oni, who was very surprised to find himself being so quickly faced with his victim. The single blow split him in half completely, as well as the asp he sat upon. Kuro the snake-herder's final words were: "How did-"

Sesshomaru loosed his whip next and made swift work of those snakes that rushed at him as he fell. Once he reached the ground, he struck out at several that were trying to flee, destroying two-hundred or so in moments. When he turned to finish the rest, he found the female cutting down the last of those that stayed to fight after the quick death of their leader. Around her, there lay maybe three tons of demon snake flesh.

Quickly his mind jumped to calculations, and he glanced back at the black asp that now lay in two parts, filleted and steaming. It had been by far the largest in attendance. Including the two hundred or so he'd killed afterward, his work amounted to at least a three thousand pounds more flesh than hers. This pleased him.

Sesshomaru flicked the blood from Bakusaiga and sheathed it.

She twirled the spear once, flinging blood off in an ach, and then she plunged one blade into the ground. Red light swelled up and the blood muddied ground began to churn. He watched silently as, within moments, the tons of carcasses were swallowed by the earth, leaving only slight mounds and the scent of meat and soil.

Afterward, she limbered her weapon and turned to him. They regarded each other for a few moments.

Her ears bobbed. "Okay, then?"

"Hn."

Sesshomaru turned and began tracking Ah-Un through the forest, aware of the female following close behind. He sighed subtlety, trying to ease some of the tension of the encounter. Pleasure at pitting himself against her and frustration at his seeming inability to bend her to his will warred within him.

He did not glance back, but he could picture her very clearly walking along, legs moving in tandem with her near silent foot falls, eyes focused on his back. Was it the calm watchful gaze that she usually faced him with, or was she taking the opportunity to glare at him? Strangely, he preferred to picture her glaring. He imagined her doing something childish, like sticking her tongue out at him. He had to resist the urge to look back and check that this was not the case.

Putting such useless speculating away, he considered again her motives and her loyalties, and then considered what it might take to sway these things toward his own benefit. It was true that her nebulous connections left her free to claim, but they also left her free to be claimed. Though she would not follow his direction with nearly the about of faithfulness and loyalty he had come to expect, this could be taught or conditioned. What interested him now was her potential as an asset for him, and by extension the Western Lands and the House of the Moon.

Sesshomaru's mind turned to conquest, and a small, nearly imperceptible smile turned his lips. The process of circumventing her plans and supplanting his own, while possibly arduous and perhaps grueling, would be well worth one day seeing her kneel at his feet, taking orders she would hold as the law. His beast stirred at the mental picture.

For whatever reason, she needed to get to the Western lands to further her plans and had no means to get there on her own. Again, an unwholesome smile touched his lips. It would be simple enough to delay their arrival until he was more certain of his hold on her.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Rin woke in the middle of the night but only opened her eyes briefly before closing them again. She tried very hard to keep her breathing the same. If she was really limp and relaxed and didn't think about anything too hard, Master Jaken wouldn't come over and tell her to go back to sleep. He was really good at telling whether she was sleeping or not, but she had learned how to fool him. She couldn't fool Lord Sesshomaru, but he wasn't here. She guessed that she would not be able to fool Fuko-san, but she wasn't here either.

Rin wondered to herself why her lord and Fuko-san liked sparring so much. They had done it every night since the time they stopped at the place with all the pretty streams. Was it fun? Fuko-san made it sound almost like playing, but Lord Sesshomaru did not like to play. Rin squirmed a little under her furs, and then relaxed.

Did they like each other? Did they dislike each other? She couldn't tell. Sometimes Lord Sesshomaru glared, but other times he just watched. He didn't ignore Fuko-san like he used to anymore. Fuko-san didn't watch Lord Sesshomaru, but when Rin asked to hear about their sparring, she smiled and talked about it like she liked remembering. Sometimes they would say something to each other, like Fuko-san would ask if they would have a bath today, and Sesshomaru would ask if it was necessary. They didn't really talk about anything really, like she and Fuko-san did about people and places and ideas and dreams they'd had. They didn't even talk like Master Jaken and Fuko-san did, which Rin thought was a good thing, since Master Jaken was really rude to Fuko-san. Fuko-san wasn't rude to Master Jaken though, or made be only a little. And she didn't think Fuko-san really disliked Master Jaken, even though she picked on him sometimes.

But did they want to talk to each other? Once, it seemed to Rin like they wanted to talk about more than what Fuko-san and Rin would do next. She remembered two or three days ago they had been talking about one of the places Fuko had gotten lost in, a place with lots of lots of humans and big, big buildings like palaces everywhere for miles. Lord Sesshomaru had suddenly asked if Fuko-san really believed such a place existed. Fuko-san had said she didn't need to believe it because she had been there. Lord Sesshomaru didn't say anything else and Fuko-san didn't say anything else until Rin felt like she would explode and _she_ had to say something else so Fuko-san would talk again. Just remembering it made her feel that way now, but Rin imagined different kinds of flowers and their names until the feeling went away.

She had thought then that they really didn't like each other, but later, when she and Fuko-san were alone and gathering food, Rin had asked if she was mad at him for not thinking the palace place was real. Fuko-san had said, "No, that's silly. I wouldn't get upset over that. He has no reason to think a place like that is real." And then she had smiled at Rin and asked, "You don't want me to be mad at your lord, do you?"

Rin really didn't, and she had told her so. Rin squirmed again, shifting the furs. If Fuko-san liked Lord Sesshomaru, maybe he would start to like her more, and then—

"Rin? You're awake! Go to sleep, you silly girl!" Master Jaken came to sit next to her, muttering quietly about children who refuse sleep properly.

"Okay, Master Jaken." Rin rolled over and curled up on her side. She wanted to think some more, but after a few moments of pretending to sleep, she accidently wasn’t pretending anymore.

When she woke next, the sky was a soft blue, signaling that the sun was about to come up. She sat up, letting the furs fall off her shoulders. She shivered slightly and pulled them back up before looking around. Lord Sesshomaru was gone. Ah-Un was awake and standing off to the side, nibbling grass. Master Jaken was asleep, hunched over near the embers of the fire. And then she spied Fuko-san sitting cross-legged near a rock, turning something over and over in her hands.

Rin bounded over, running right out of her covers. She glanced over at Master Jaken before whispering excitedly, "Fuko-san! Good morning, Fuko-san."

The inu youkai glanced up with a warm smile that made Rin feel nice inside. "Good morning, Rin-chan. Are you hungry?"

"Not yet," she answered. "What's that? Where's Lord Sesshomaru?"

"I don't know where he went, but I think he left to scout. This!" Fuko held up the greenish rock in her hands, grinning in a way that excited Rin. "-is jadeite! Do you want to hold it?"

Rin nearly made herself dizzy with her frantic nodding. The stone was passed to her and it filled her cupped hands. It was a good size and weight, feeling substantial. It was kind of the size of her foot, and shaped a little like that. "It's heavy, but look!" Rin raised the rock over her head to show that she could, and Fuko clapped.

Rin grinned and passed it back. "What are you going to do with it?"

Again, Fuko-san grinned. "I'm going to make you a present."

The girl's mouth fell open. "What?"

Fuko nodded once. "A present."

Without thinking, Rin lurched forward and threw herself into Fuko's arms, wrapping her arms tight around her neck. She couldn't even speak to say thank you! or really? or anything. She was happy when Fuko-san hugged her back, but began to worry after a little while. Fuko-san was a demon like Lord Sesshomaru, and he didn't like hugging. He only ever held her when she was hurt or sick, or if he needed to carry her. Rin pulled away with pink cheeks and looked at her feet, which were smudged with dirt. "S-sorry, Fuko-san! It's just, only Lord Sesshomaru has ever given me a present, and I got excited, and-"

Fuko-san frowned, confused. Her ears bobbed. "What are you sorry for, Rin-chan?"

Rin looked up, saw the frown and looked away. "I hugged you without permission, sorry."

"Aw, Rin-chan, you don't need permission to hug me. We're friends, right?"

The girl glanced up sharply. "Huh?"

Fuko gave a soft smile. "We're friends."

Rin's cheeks reddened a little more, and she looked down at her fidgeting hands before asking, "Really?"

"Yeah." For a second, they were both quiet, then Fuko held out her arms. Rin fell into them and was squeezed gently. "You know, you can call me Fuko. Or, Fuko-chan, if you prefer. Maybe even Fu-chan."

Rin looked up, amazed.

Fuko wrinkled her nose playfully. "Someone called me Fufu-chan, but I don't like it."

Rin giggled. "Fufu-chan sounds pretty."

"It sounds like a cat's name." They both laughed.

The sound woke Jaken, and he jerked to his feet, waving his staff groggily. "What! Who's there!?"

They laughed harder.

"What?" Jaken spun in a complete circle before finding them. "W-what are you two laughing at?!" When they simply kept laughing, he stomped his foot angrily. "Stop it at once!"

This sent them into paroxysms of amusement, and all the laughing and smiles, even when it was so much it hurt, made Rin feel light and float-y, like a leaf in a gentle stream. Eventually, they quieted, lapsing into muffled giggles if only for Jaken's sake, since he hadn't stopped shouting since it started and was beginning to turn bluish-green.

"There!" he breathed. "It's good to see you two haven't completely lost your minds!" He slumped to the ground, as tired as they were, and whined, "If Lord Sesshomaru came back and saw that, he'd blame me for sure."

At length, Rin was poked in her side, which was still tender from laughing. She suppressed a giggle as she asked, "Yes, Fuko-chan?"

"Are you hungry?"

"Mmm-hmm!"

"Okay, let's go see what's for breakfast."

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**Onward!**

**Chapter 7: The Games We Play**


	7. The Games We Play

**Hello!**

**I don’t own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon. Youki- demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai- great demon. Mokomoko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad. Dokkaso- Sesshomaru's poison. Hime- princess. Kami- gods. Hebi-snake. Oni- ogre demons

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**Chapter 7: The Games We Play**

“Jaken. Take Rin to forage.”

“Yes, milord!” Jaken turned toward the trees. “Come, girl. You’re too slow!”

“Okay!” Rin slipped down from Ah-Un’s back and ran ahead of the imp, not heeding his call when he shouted that she was going too fast.

Fuko moved to follow, but a splinter of youki suddenly sizzled across her senses, as jarring as the sound of breaking glass. She jerked to a stop and glanced sharply at Sesshomaru.

His face was completely inscrutable and their eyes held for a long moment before he said flatly, “We stop here for the night. Secure the area.”

Fuko’s ears flicked in irritation, but then she quieted that emotion with a slow sigh. Escalating their silent fight wouldn’t help anyone. And getting angry certainly wouldn’t progress a friendship between herself and the Western lord. Not that she really thought friendship was possible under these conditions.

Nevertheless, if Rin saw them fight, it would upset her, and there was still that looming threat of exhaustion sickness. Thinking of the girl quelled her ire even further and she tucked her hands into her sleeves as she turned to face him completely. Inside, she found the raw lump of jadeite with her fingertips. Rin _really_ loved her lord and obviously thought of him as a father. Fuko couldn’t bring herself to hate someone that the little girl loved.

But she was still pissed.

He’d spent the day abrading her with the ill winds of his youki. This felt like being smothered by a hot woolen blanket, but so long as she kept her own youki ramped up, it was tolerable. It was her punishment for defying him, he’d said, though she didn’t accept the notion she had done anything worth punishing.

Despite her periodic warning flares, Sesshomaru maintained the oppressive cloud, letting up briefly at times only to suddenly amp up the pressure again. She wanted nothing more than to shrug him off, but that was easier said than done with Jaken on the alert for her every little offence.

Sesshomaru obviously wanted another confrontation, probably another fight, the big bully, but she wouldn’t give him one. It would just lead to more stupid grudges.

_Dammit, what did I ever do to you?_

Shaking those thoughts away, she blew out a breath and replied to him as amicably as possible, “I usually go with Rin to find her food.”

“I have given my orders.”

She felt his youki shift thickly and gratingly over hers. It was worse than having her fur rubbed the wrong way. “I heard what you ordered. I’m just trying to let you know that Rin will be disappointed.”

His chin lifted slightly and his voice gained a new edge of frost. “You can hardly believe that you have made yourself so vital that she cannot function in your absence.”

The grating continued vigorously during his retort and Fuko finally gave another warning flare. Their combined power was enough to approach the visible spectrum. A few sparks sizzled through the air between them.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked. “Listen, I don’t like this. I don’t mind scouting around the camp, but I feel like you’re asking just to bother me, and—”

“Fuko-chan!”

The demoness turned and darted into the trees, reaching Rin’s side before her call was even complete. Jaken flinched in surprise at her sudden appearance and the little human jumped as well, but then grinned in greeting.

Fuko gave her a tense smile. “Rin-chan, we’re going to stop here for the night.”

“Oh.” The girl frowned, eyes going wide. “Why are we stopping? It’s only midday.”

Again, Fuko’s ears flicked. Why _were_ they stopping? “Your Lord Sesshomaru decided to stop. He also said I should go secure the area, so I’m going to go do that. Sorry about lunch.”

Her frown deepened. “It’s okay. But, what if you get lost?”

Sighing, Fuko tried to let go of some of the tension in her shoulders. “I can find Jaken, remember? I’ll come join you when I’ve finished.”

Rin swayed from side to side, her face brightening abruptly. “Oh! Okay. See you soon!”

A smile twitched over Fuko’s lips and she nodded. “See you soon.”

Again, she dashed away, leaving a swirl of wind in her wake. Within two seconds, she was beyond the cloud of Sesshomaru’s youki for the first time that day. She slowed, relieved.

Trotting through the old grown forest of cypress and pine, Fuko could feel the small amount of cheer Rin had given her already draining away. She frowned, annoyed with herself. Why was she letting that bull-headed jerk get under her skin? She had to keep the peace, at least until they parted ways. She should just ignore his behavior and placate him, but the very idea of giving him what he wanted now set her teeth on edge. He was such a _bully_.

For a while, the demoness tried working off her anger by picking up speed, bouncing off tree trunks and ricocheting off boulders, with shrapnel from these impacts zinging into the undergrowth, but this only made her more upset. Why was she out here running in circles anyway? Scouting was something he did, wasn’t it? Why this sudden delegation of duty? And _why_ were they stopping so early in the day, when all that morning they had been running full tilt with Ah-Un carrying Rin and Jaken through the air? She had wondered if they were on their final approach to the West, but it appeared they had only gone deeper into the heart of the forest.

When she reached the outer limits of the ten mile radius around the homing beacon on Jaken’s staff, Fuko turned sharply and began running along the perimeter. She didn’t know how Sesshomaru usually secured an area for the night, but she figured her own methods of area lockdown would be good enough. And if they weren’t, he could just do it himself.

Fuko drew on her power, which reacted gladly with the cathartic release of a coil long left on the verge of springing. It whirled higher and higher around her, intensifying until it tinged the air blue and then painted it with cobalt streaks and violet veins. When the trees around her suddenly began to creak and buckle from the pressure, she sheepishly pulled back, leashing the youki tornado. When more appropriate mild gusts spun the leaves in her wake with only florescent hints of indigo, she began running spokes through the interior of the circular area while purposefully avoiding the hub so as not to encounter any of her group. Her disturbing winds stirred up the small wood-dwelling tree spirits and the buggy beasts that burrowed underground, buffeting them until they moved clear.

If she considered it, she would realize that she was doing the same to these demon beasts that Sesshomaru had been doing to her, but Fuko was lost in the process, mind a pleasant blank as she whizzed through the under bush and vaulted over streams. With only a few passes, the lesser demons began clearing out, moving beyond the perimeter.

She continued until the last of them had fled, and then let her aura die down as she moved to the edge of her claimed area to run along it again. She smirked. It wasn’t often that she got to be territorial and her methods had improved vastly since her childhood scent-marking days. She glanced up at the sun and estimated that she had been away for twenty minutes. The Western Lord was gone for hours a night, and she wondered idly if there was something more she should be doing.

Then, a flicker of Sesshomaru’s power at the center of the camp caught her attention. Immediately, her muscles tensed and her easy loping gait shifted toward a more aggressive pummeling of the earth. Consequently, she picked up speed. Fuko decided she wasn’t ready to go back, considering that the mere reminder of his previous treatment made her feel like biting someone.

When another, more insistent flare touched her senses, she allowed her disquieted spirit to answer with one of those rude youki splinters he was so fond of shooting her way. His aura reacted with a jerk of pain.

She glared at the scenery rushing before her, waiting for his retaliation. After a few moments of blurred trees and no response, she realized there wasn’t going to be one. Huffing angrily, she spurred herself to even more speed. _Now_ he was going to leave her in peace? The ground trembled under the impact of her feet.

It was strange to see, Fuko the cheery dog demoness, believer in the power of positive thinking, glowering as she ran with such thrilling swiftness. Varied but simultaneous tirades flowed through her mind, all of them condemning the unfriendly inu youkai who apparently disdained the very idea of sociability. She just could not seem to hold on to the good will with which she had tried to meet the Western lord. Maybe because she did not enjoy having it thrown back in her face with every glare and harsh act.

But, behind her anger, shades of sadness, confusion, and even loneliness loomed. She had thought they were becoming friends. She just couldn’t understand why something that had seemed so promising was falling apart _._

Days ago, on the evening of the snake ambush, he’d invited her to spar with him after he’d returned from his nightly jaunt. She had gladly accepted. The first time had been fun, not to mention that this invitation was the first near-civil thing she’d seen from him. He was a magnificent fighter, and she just knew she could learn a lot from him. She was actually more excited than she let on with her casual, “Sure.”

After appointing Jaken the guard, he led her away from the camp where Rin and Ah-Un slumbered and into a clearing about a mile away. They fought much as they had the first time, with the same rules and similar attacks, but it was still as interesting and trying as facing off against a new opponent. He showed her that he couldn’t be taken in by the same trick twice and more than once Fuko had to reach for styles and tactics half-forgotten from disuse. Falling into old patterns brought back so many memories and also gave her new chances to innovate.

If anything, the second night of sparring was more rewarding than the first, and she was exhilarated anew, sweat-touched and out of breath. He had been pleased as well, and she knew this by no other sign than his short graceful bow after he called a halt to the match. To her, his bow communicated concisely every nuance of the things she wanted to say, like ‘that was great’ and ‘I really enjoyed myself’, so she copied him without wasting words.

After they had cleaned themselves, he with a subtle burst of youki, her with fox fire immolation, and then dressed in their outer layers, he sat amongst an untouched patch of grass and gestured for her to join him. Surprised, she had complied.

“Tell me of your training,” he had said, seeming the epitome of polite interest.

She snorted now, leaping over a stream. ‘Tell me of your training’, indeed.

()()()()()()()()()()(Then…)()()()()()()()()()()

Fuko sat up a little straighter, inspecting the face of the male sitting across from her with care. He was as expressionless as ever, but his eyes were focused on her without veiled contempt for the first time. He wanted to know more about her style, was perhaps as appreciative of her martial skill as she was of his. It was no vow of everlasting friendship, but it was certainly a big unexpected step in the right direction!

Her fingertips formed a pleased steeple in front of her as she smiled at him. “Well, I’ve had a lot of training in a lot of places. What would you like to hear about first?”

“From whom did you first receive your training?”

“My first? That’s hard to say, actually. With some things, my parents trained me from the moment I was born. Was that the same for you?” Her ears tipped forward in interest.

“It was.” His tone was kind of peremptory.

“Oh.” She moved on, warned off that topic,. “Well, beyond basic control of youki, my father taught me to meditate and my mother taught me to hunt. Ah, did they teach me how to fight? It’s hard to recall exactly what I learned from them and what I had figured out on my own.”

Fuko fell silent. How long had it been since she tried to remember her dam and sire? Too long, apparently. She vaguely remembered pedagogic tones and a guiding touch, but their voices were lost. Their exact features escaped her. His was a hazy figure with a gentle voice and firm hands. She was a warm, furry body, smelling of milk and comfort. She remembered the scent of them both clearly, but little else.

Abruptly, the demon lord prompted, “Your training.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Fuko sat up straight. “I suppose my first formal training in hand-to-hand combat came from Nomukyo, a fox demon.” Just saying the name transported her. She could see his grinning face easily. “We were both young, smaller than Rin is.” She nodded to herself, beginning to recall that time in her life with greater detail, “His family had sequestered themselves in a little isolated valley so they could train their young and we had happened to settle on the mountain side nearby for the winter. He was looking for someone to practice his fox magic on, so he agreed to teach me what martial skills he was learning if I would spar with him. He wanted to get better than his cousin, who he hated. Tatsuya wasn’t that bad, really—but, anyway, Nomukyo taught me what he knew of the Ii-Kitsune ryu. It’s a style that his family had been developing since the time of his great-great-grandfather, the nine-tailed Hatsumura. Have you heard of—no? Well, the Ii-Kitsune ryu still informs my style today. I’ve had to adapt it as I’ve grown and I’ve incorporated other styles, but I think if we ever met again, Nomukyo would recognize it. We were really great friends.” Her smile gained a bittersweet edge and she wondered, had leaving him behind so suddenly broken that friendship? Not many relationships could survive such a complete and utter break.

Catching herself before she slipped into more sentimental recollection, she continued with forced cheer, “Even though we were the same age, he was an excellent sensei. I owe him a lot. He’s the one who taught me fox magic too, so you have him to thank!”

When his expression didn’t change at all, Fuko gave a single awkward chuckle and scratched the back of her head. “Well. How about you, Lord Sesshomaru? Where did your formal training begin?”

One eye brow rose slightly as he gave her an equable look. “Tutors.”

She waited. A breeze came and tousled her hair and she noticed that his long locks remained untouched. Then she realized that he wasn’t going to expand on what little he had said and she had a vague sense of being snubbed. But, she tamped that down. Okay, he wasn’t the best at conversation. She wasn’t the best either. She couldn’t fault him if his personality prevented him from being more engaging.

She tried prodding him. “So, your first tutor taught you what, exactly?”

“What it was necessary to learn in order to move on to the next.”

“Oh.” She blinked slowly. “So, there was a tiered education structure already in place when you were growing up, like a school.” Pleased with this little bit of information, she asked, “Do you recall any of your tutors especially?”

“No.”

Maybe it was his tone, but Fuko couldn’t resist pointing at him and replying, “Liar.”

He stiffened, taking offense.

She dropped her hand and tried to be cajoling. “Come on. Tell me, which tutor was special to you?”

His voice regained that arctic tinge that had been absent all night. “It is none of your concern.”

Fuko’s ears flicked downward. “Oh? I apologize if I’m making you uncomfortable. I just thought we were getting to know each other.”

“Hn.”

She wondered how he could possibly put so much ice behind a simple noise. It was probably his eyes.

“Where did you learn that under-hand strike?”

Fuko rocked back slightly, noting the abrupt subject change, but things had gotten awkward somehow. She was willing to press on if he was. “The under-hand strike…” She guessed that he was speaking of the blow she had dealt to his jaw during the match. It had staggered him, allowing her the chance to knock him off his feet. Maybe this story would engage him a little more. “You must be wondering how I got so much power behind it at such close range. I used two hands.” She placed her left hand under her right elbow and drove the heels of her hands upward sharply. “It requires no youki.”

When he nodded in seeming encouragement, she continued, “I learned it from an earth hermit in the Badlands. It is one of the Twelve-Fold Strikes of the Red Mountain, of which I know ten. This was when I was bigger, still small though, a little shorter than Rin is.” She looked up and to the right as she tried to remember the circumstances. “Um, I was lost in a dry wasteland, even though I had _just_ left a seaside city—weird—and I was beset by a ground whale. You know, a ground whale? Probably not like what you’re imagining. It looked more like a salamander, but because of the size, they are called ground whales. Anyway, they’re just animals, so I wasn’t in any danger, but I must have looked venerable, because this big old guy with a filthy beard and a torn gi comes flying out of nowhere—he had jumped off a cliff from behind me, he couldn’t really fly—and he knocks the beast out with a single strike.” Fuko viciously drove the flat of her hand downward once, rending the air with a sound like ripping cloth. The resulting gust blew her bangs up. She smiled at him again as they settled back into place.

“I know either one of us could do that now, but I was still little and this guy was human—” At his raised brow she said, “Yes, human. An old one. Anyway, I was a voracious learner and instead of thanking him I demanded that he teach me. I must have followed him around for a week.” She shook her head, embarrassed. “I could be really annoying when I wanted. But, when he realized I wasn’t human, he became intrigued. There were only a few low-level demons around this place, you see, and they avoided people. He thought I was a ‘Child of the Mountain’, stuff of legend. Anyway, he taught me ten of the twelve-fold strikes and would have taught me the eleventh at least—there was some problem with the twelfth—but I… I got lost hunting one day and couldn’t find my way back.”

Fuko faltered, falling into remembrance. Huge dark trees and smoky air. A heavy-set man with ancient eyes sitting across a fire. “I hope he found what he was looking for out there. He was on a pilgrimage.” She shifted, troubled. “He was a very quiet and a little out of it sometimes. I only knew him for a few weeks, but still, I hate not being able to say goodbye to people, you know?”

Sesshomaru looked like he didn’t know.

She shrugged a little. “Well, that’s how I learned that move, anyway.”

He stared for a long moment and the only movement in the clearing was the slight swaying of the grass. Fuko resisted fidgeting.

“Why would you seek to learn from a human?”

Her ears twitched, just the hint of a future bob. “He was a good fighter.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “You say that this ‘land whale’—”

“Ground whale.”

A slight chill touched the air around her, but he continued unerringly, as if she hadn’t interrupted him, “—was no threat to you. Why should you have been impressed enough to seek tutelage?”

“Well, think about it. If he, a human, could put that kind of power behind a single punch, a naturally stronger being could accomplish that much more with the same technique. I wanted to learn.”

“Hn.” He stared ahead again, seeming to digest her story.

They sat in silence for a while. Another breeze came and he remained as oddly unruffled as before. That’s really eerie, she thought _._

Fuko tucked her hands into her sleeves. “So, were you tutored on your own, or did you have classmates?”

His eyes remained unfocused. “I am the son of the great Inu no Taisho. No expense was spared in my instruction.”

“And by that you mean, they were private tutors,” she guessed after another long pause. “Hm. Inu no Taisho, that sounds like an impressive title. Is that a dynastic name or...?”

His gaze turned suddenly sharp and scornful. “Do not feign ignorance.”

Her ears flattened to her hair. “I’m not.”

“You know of the West. You must know of my father.”

“Apparently not.” The words were meant to be contrite, but they came out rueful.

He glared and she winced.

The demoness flicked her gaze around, looking for solutions in the trees. It seemed like conversation with this guy was fraught with hidden peril. “I don’t know if I told you this, but I’m not from around here. And I don’t have much occasion for gossip. If there’s something I should know but don’t, please don’t be surprised.” There was a long pause. To her it seemed that his glare eased. She started again, feeling hesitant. “So, your father? He’s famous, then?”

Slowly, he responded, “His name is one recognized the world over.”

“For?”

“Conquest.” After a moment he added, “He bolstered the Western Lands immeasurably during his reign. The title referred to him as the Dog General.”

“Oh.” It took a second, but she had noticed the past tense he had used. She wondered, was his father dead? He was the Lord of the West now, so it made sense. She still didn’t want to ask. “You could say martial prowess runs in the family, then,” she said brightly.

The quickest glint of some emotion appeared and disappeared from his eyes and he didn’t confirm or deny her guess.  

After a moment, he stood. “Come.”

Surprised, she followed him and they walked back to the others in silence. In fact, the daiyoukai didn’t speak to her directly all that day and into the evening, until that night when he appeared on the edge of their current campsite, half obscured in shadow.

“Come,” he said.

Spooky, she thought, but she followed him then, unsure of his intent but willing to wait and see when he wouldn’t respond to her questions. Until they reached a large clearing some three miles away, she thought he might be taking her somewhere private to tell her something about Rin. She had spent the day trading stories with the girl, many of them containing descriptions of her most favorite landscapes, and she had noted the demon lord’s restrained interest. But, upon reaching the clearing, he indicated that they would spar.

Truly, such pleasures she had not known since she was young, actually _learning_ from her opponents. To actually hone her skills in a meaningful way made her nearly giddy. While at times it required strategic thought, sparring like this took mostly instinct, reflex, and complete corporeal harmony. It blurred the line between two feet and four, and Fuko loved that.

It was hours before he called a halt with the sun was just beyond the horizon, but even with this indication of the time, he sat in the grass as he had the previous night.

Fuko was still shaking the fox fire from her fingertips, going over and over the match in her mind. If a winner need be declared, this was the demon lord’s victory. It almost seemed like he could read her mind this time. Next time, she resolved not to be so predictable—and to avoid the guy’s elbows.

Absently rubbing the still smarting knot on top of her head, she sat across from him.

“You cannot truly have traveled to such places,” he began as if they were already mid-conversation.

Was he still thinking of the stories she’d told Rin? “Um. But I have.”

“The things you speak of are impossible.”

“They’re just not here.” She frowned. How could she explain? Certain people refused to believe a thing they hadn’t seen for themselves. “That’s how it works. Some places have deserts and some places have forests.”

“Inverted mountains can hardly be compared to a simple grouping of trees,” he said. “You will stop plying Rin with such fantastic lies.”

She huffed and resigned herself to being misunderstood. “They’re not lies. But, Rin is your child. If you don’t want her to hear about such things, then of course I’ll stop.”

He grunted, and then asked, “What affiliations do you claim?”

“What?”

He spoke slowly then, and insultingly so. “With whom do you ally yourself? What titles and positions have you held?”

Annoyed _,_ she hedged, explaining that anything she told him would seem as incredible as upside-down mountains. He demanded with varying levels of intensity that she think of something reasonable to tell him. She pointed out that he was asking her to lie to him, and then he got a bit belligerent, claiming that, among other things, she had no sense of reality.

As a result, discussions ended on a sour note and the silence between them was strained all that day and into the evening until, again, Sesshomaru appeared in the edge of the camp, beckoning to her like a ghost.

This guy is so pale, she thought, but even then she only briefly considered turning him down. Sparring was just too great a lure and the negative feelings never truly arose until after, when he questioned her. Besides the dubious way he approached her every night, never quite the civil invitation that had been issued the first time, Fuko got the sense that the goings on after their matches were not so much conversations as they were interrogations. All of her questions were deflected or left half answered and anything she told him that didn’t mesh with his expectations was challenged.

This will work out, she told herself, rising to her feet to follow him. We just needed to get used to each other.

And so the pattern held: days of stilted discourse exclusively having to do with Rin and nights of educational roughhousing immediately followed by frustrating, non-communicative exchanges, which then lent themselves to tenser days.

Until, of course, things came to a head.

The sun had completely surmounted the horizon when he finally called a halt to the match. At his signal, she bowed deeply and quickly like a weight on a pendulum, and then was up and bounding over to her clothes in a flash. It had been her match today, most definitely.

Upon landing next to her gear, she set herself alight in cleansing fox fire causing a loud _whoosh._ The bright flames soared, seemingly out of control, and Fuko stood among them swaying slightly, just restraining herself from bouncing on the balls of her feet. When was the last time she had surprised herself like this? She hadn’t even remembered learning Muay Thai boxing until he’d backed her into a corner!

“Girl!”

Startled, Fuko turned and looked back. Sesshomaru still stood in the field, and sheathed in indigo plasma as she was, his pale skin, hair and clothing were tinged blue. She grinned at the sight. _Smurfin’ smurf._

He bared his teeth in response. “You will cease your display.”

She widened her eyes, squelching the smile and trying to project blamelessness. “I’m not doing anything.”

He stepped forward, challenging. “Restrain yourself. Now.”

She touched her cheek doubtfully. “What could you mean by that?” Even as she said this, the flames swelled higher.

“I will not repeat myself.”

Her ears fell flat, pointing to either side.

He stepped forward again and a low growl rumbled through the morning air.

Finally sensing the complete seriousness of her sparring partner, Fuko quelled the flames. “You’re such a grump,” she muttered.

“What?” The word was dangerously soft. He was now walking toward her.

“I said, you’re a grump,” she called. “It means you resist fun and stop others from having it.”

“You dare mock me?” His tone crackled with ice.

Fuko rolled her eyes as she turned away. The flames were out now so she plopped to the ground beside her spear. She flipped her hair forward, off of her neck, and began to comb through the silky curtain with her claws. She could feel him standing behind her, but she was fairly certain he wouldn’t lash out. They were still so fresh from sparring. An unsanctioned attack would be against the rules.

“Do not think to ignore this Sesshomaru.” The chill of his voice was really quite impressive, but it barely fazed her anymore. Over-exposure had left her numb to the cold.

“I am not ignoring Lord Sesshomaru, I am combing my hair.”

“You will face me when you speak.”

She shrugged and remained silent.

He was still behind her when she brushed her hair back and gave her head a small shake to re-settle the strands around her ears and over her shoulders. They were soft against her nape, but she wondered if she ought to replace the hair tie she had lost in battle.

She glanced over her shoulder and Sesshomaru was still towering over her. She could at least tell that he was trying to intimidate her. Fuko sighed, “Since neither of us is in a great mood right now, why don’t we skip the conversation?”

He crouched and then his face was only half a foot hers. His eyes glinted like frozen shards of tourmaline. “You will answer my questions.”

Her eyebrow quirked upward. “You don’t answer _my_ questions.”

“And yet you will answer mine.”

“You know what? I don’t think I will.” With that, she turned her back. This guy was just too full of himself.

For just a second, Fuko thought she felt a short sharp breath on the back of her neck. Then, he seized her by the nape with bruising force and hauled her to her feet. The pain was nothing compared to the insult of it, and in pure reaction, she twisted in his grip and kicked downward hard and fast toward his shin. He dropped her like a hot coal, snarling. They sprang apart and began circling. The next few moments were filled with snarling and aggressive posturing. Their fangs were bared, twisting each face into an animalistic mask that revealed more of the beast within than the more docile expressions of only seconds before. Tension lengthened their limbs and their eyes flashed, looking an opening. If they weren’t so evenly match, one would have lunged at the other. However, as the seconds ticked by and the tension began to ease, Fuko planted her feet resolutely and the circling stopped.

“Who-,” she coughed and ran her tongue quickly over the roof of her mouth. It was difficult to switch from dog-speak to human so suddenly. “Who do you think you are!?”

He spoke though his snarl that lended a rumbling bass to his voice. “I am one who will not be disrespected by one such as you.”

“Disre-,” Another growl escaped from her before she could continue. “What _disrespect?_ I’ve done nothing to you that you haven’t done-”

“You will _not_ turn your back-”

“ _You_ turn your-,”

“You will not ignore-,”

“Are you kidding me?”

“ _You will not interrupt!_ ”

Fuko’s ears snapped back and she just barely resisted flinching, the volume and the suddenness of his shout was that jarring.

The silence after his outburst was penetrated only by a tinny ringing in her ears. In the absence of his inflaming words, she notice for the first time that there were _emotions_ on his face, clear and easy to read. Mostly anger, but disbelief lingered around the edges, giving her pause. Had no one ever asked him to treat them like a person before?

When the ringing subsided, she said evenly, “I’ve treated you as you have treated me.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

“And who are _you_ to think that you could treat this one as an equal?”

To her, his snarl seemed vaguely… disingenuous. Her brow wrinkled as she said slowly, “Someone who refuses to be belittled by anyone, even one such as you.”

He took two quick steps toward her as he growled out, “You would mock me even now.”

She stood her ground. Her head tipped slightly to the side as she asked, “Mock you, Lord Sesshomaru? Who would dare? Who has dared? Anyone?”

His teeth bared and his fingers curled into talons at his sides. “Do not provoke me.”

“Don’t be provoked.” Her ears bobbed. “Aren’t you overreacting? I’ve only ever tried to preserve my own dignity-,”

“Girl, you tread on thin ice!” He stepped forward again. “Whatever dignity I allow you is something to be thankful for.”

This time she matched him, stepping boldly forward so that they were now within each other’s reach. She was annoyed by the certain yet nebulous sense that she no longer knew what they were arguing about, or if they were even arguing in earnest. “Are you listening to yourself?”

His eyes narrowed.

“No, really. What you just said doesn’t make any sense.”

They stared at each other.

“Because dignity is self-respect. You can’t control what I feel for myself unless I let you.”

He reached for her then, fast, but not nearly fast enough to catch her if she dodged. But she didn’t dodge. She let him fist his hand in the front of her kosode and haul her forward. When he saw that she only hung limply in his grasp, he gripped her throat with his free hand. She slowly reached up and grabbed his wrist, but otherwise she didn’t react.

His expression shifted, just fractionally, but it was enough to reveal that confusion had overwhelmed his anger. “If you are so concerned with your dignity, why are you allowing this?”

A growl still rumbled behind his words, but Fuko disregarded it. “I’m just am.” Her ears tipped forward. “Do you want me to struggle?”

His lip tensed, again baring fangs, and his grip on her throat tightened a bit. “I could kill you.”

She put her free hand high on his chest and let her claws catch in the fine silk of his clothes. A very slight tug exposed the hollow of his throat.

He started visibly and jerked her to the side, removing her hand. “Stop it.” He gave her one hard shake. “Stop this foolishness.”

“No.” Fuko squeezed his wrist. “ _You_ stop it.”

Because she was looking right into his face, she saw a split second of naked uncertainty before he thrust her away and took a half step back.

They stared at each other for a few seconds. She was tousled despite having just fixed her hair. Her near psychedelic kimono was still laying in a hastily folded bundle over her spear, so it was the pure muslin white of her kosode hat stood out in the morning sun. Her eyes were wide and searching, seeing more than the demon lord was comfortable with, but actually understanding very little. And just as she was without her usual colors, he was unusually mussed, still touched with the sweat of their struggle and ruffled by the wind. One rebel lock of hair jutted out at an odd angle from his bangs. It was boyish. His eyes were narrowed slightly, his expression guarded, but his look clearly said to her, _who is this odd person_? Neither breathed into this still, tense moment.

Hesitantly, Fuko offered a little smile—and saw the exact moment he rejected it. It was like watching shutters fall between them.

The cold expressionlessness of his face disturbed her more than it had before. His aura began to swell and Fuko reflexively tensed and checked her points of reference. Her spear was still on the ground, to her right; Jaken’s staff was far and away behind her, perhaps eight and a half miles in that direction. But, making it back to camp wasn’t the problem. She had a feeling that witnesses wouldn’t stop him committing violence if that was really what he wanted to do. If he acted with killing intent now, how should she react?

His power built until it reached a point that purified his skin, burning off dirt and sweat and leaving his hair free to settle back into its neat, unruffled state.

Relieved, she let the tension ease out of her shoulders. Maybe he wasn’t actually mad at—

“You,” His power rippled over her then, sudden and grating, worse than sand, like falling into a patch of thorns, only it wasn’t her skin being scratched, “will answer my questions.”

She gasped and tried to back away. “Stop it-”

The sensations intensified and vertigo struck with enough force to make her stagger. “What do you hope to gain from the West?”

“I said stop!”

He bore down, but her power swelled in answer and the energies clashed with an audible crackle and visible sparks. Their youki whipped around them like a whirlwind, blowing back leaves, dust, and pebbles. Encircled by her own demon energy, she was safe, but the effects of his aura could still be felt.

_This_ was what she got when she tried to be nice to him? He was nothing more than a bully.

Fuko let her power spike and the ill winds whipping around them burst suddenly with a flash of blue. “I’m not answering anymore questions.” She stepped back and gave a short, sharp bow. “See you back at camp.” She then scooped up her things with a huff and stormed out so quickly that the air clapped loudly into the vacuum she left behind.

()()()()()()()(Now)()()()()()()()

She relived the incident, growling long and low, and with her every footfall she thought of a new insult against the arrogant male: stupid, patronizing, dirty, rotten, stinking, no good, jerk, idiot, arrogant, jackass, jerk…

She kept repeating herself, but this could be excused for the fact that her every footfall was coming perhaps fifteen or sixteen milliseconds after the last.

As the demoness growled to herself and wore a perfectly circular path twenty miles in diameter in the earth, the forest beyond the perimeter of her territory began to fall curiously silent without her notice. One by one, animals paused in their daily activities, lifted quivering noses to the air for a moment, and then scattered. The tree spirits that had been forced out by her aura had long since fled to the ether, but the petty demons of dirt and decay who manifested in forms like beetles and centipedes were now abandoning their holes and burrows to the south. Despite their desperate flight, those with the capacity to feel it felt a sense of vindication. This rumbling of the earth could only mean that the reigning king of this forest was on his way to kill the intruder.

Only when Fuko accidentally trampled a shambling fungus demon did she brake from her internal rant.

“What the hell?!” She skidded to a stop, throwing up a rooster-tail of dust and gravel that was blown away an instant later by her windage. When she looked behind her to see what she had hit, there looked to be only a gray and brown smear on the ground. The scent in the air told her more. “Oh! I’m sorry!” She jogged back. “Hello? Little fella? Are you alright?”

She stood helplessly over the flattened mushroom demon for a second before taking out her spear and jabbing it into the earth beside it. Chikyukiba unlocked the earth’s energy and guided it into the injured creature. It began to inflate and a minute later, it sat up.

“You’re okay.” Fuko helped it to its nubby, taupe-colored feet. “I’m really sorry I squished you.”

The fungus turned to face her. Maybe. He (she? it?) looked like a common mushroom, though over-grown and with disembodied nubby limbs. The top of its fleshy brown cap only came to her knee. Still taller than Jaken, she thought. From what she could see, it had no fingers, no mouth, no eyes, and no ears, but it seemed to orient on her and emit a garbled wail.

“I said I was sorry.”

It twirled back and forth quickly.

“Um. Are you dancing?”

It wailed, tipped its cap from side-to-side twice, and then trundled away into the underbrush.

“Weird.” Fuko limbered her spear as she stared after the little creature.

In the next instant, a screech as big as the mountains ripped through the air, crumpling her ears. Her head bowed under the bone shaking noise and her hands involuntarily came up to cover her ears, but that paltry defense could not stop the sonic assault. A secondary reaction, one born of a life time of unpredictable opponents, came a second later and had her youki ballooning out and solidifying into a barrier. Inside, she was able to drop her hands and look up.

Her spear was back in hand and her body falling into the rhythms of battle before she really processed the entirety what she was looking at. And then she snapped, “What the hell!?”

To her, it seemed she was being confronted with a boss battle without having accepted the quest or fought the minions. The creature before her was a leviathan of craggy rock, animated by a demon aura of equal size and ominous, murky color. Its fore limbs were reminiscent of a gorilla’s, but the hind limbs were round, formless stubs. A ridge of sharp spires ran from the tip of its prehistoric tail, along the hunched back, up and over its head, and down its long face to end in a cluster of spines where a nose should have been. The eyes, set close together, were two black pits from which two points of dingy yellow light emanated.  

Sesshomaru, who had long been aware of the approach of the giant rock demon, stood concealed in the bower of a large camphor tree and watched the behemoth crash through the last strand of forest between it and the female. Again, it opened its cavernous mouth and unleashed that hair-raising screech.

This time, Fuko of the North was unfazed, but she did not answer the challenge directly. He smirked, for he knew she could not. Instead, she paced back and forth in front of the demon with her spear in hand. She yelled, “Go away! I’m warning you, I’m in no mood!” He could hear her snarling even at this great distance. He suppressed a laugh, wanting to ask, what good are your threats when you can’t follow through?

The stone beast reared back and then lunged forward, driving both fists into the ground and creating a shockwave that made the earth under her feet dip and crest like waves in the ocean. The trees and shrubbery behind her rolled into the undertow. She leapt over those crushing waves, bouncing from crest to crest, and then landed untouched on the broken ground left behind. The blades of Chikyukiba flashed deep blue and she swung it, sending out several youki blades in a second. They all burst over the ridge of the demon’s snout, but her attack was shrugged off with a mighty shake of its head.

It used its weighty hind limbs to propel itself forward until it was toeing the invisible line demarking the female’s territory. Sesshomaru watched with gleaming eyes as she blurred toward it—and came up short suddenly. Then again, she retreated, lunged toward the nearest part of her challenger, and then pulled up short without making contact. The look of frustration on her face brought a rare and genuine smile to his.

It was as he had surmised. The strange glyph on Jaken’s staff was her doing and it tied her to its location. This, it seemed, was the outer reaches of that tie. He had heard account after account over the past few days, not just the ones she gave him but those she told to Rin in his hearing, he had come to believe in the disability she spoke of so frequently. It seemed that it was true that she could not navigate any significant distance without help. He had thought it too odd and too convenient before, especially considering that she tracked him for days before he realized she was following him, but since spying the unknown symbol in the fire light several nights ago, he’d thought it might be true. What he wondered now was how she could be so foolish as to share her weakness with anyone who asked.

Again, the beast screeched. It slouched forward and swatted at her, slamming one palm down in an attempt to crush her, but of course she was too fast. Before the hand could be withdrawn, she was upon it with movements too quick to see. The clamorous sound of metal on stone rang out several dozen times. The beast lifted its hand away, screaming, and Sesshomaru could see from his distance perch that several deep cracks marred the surface. The daiyoukai snorted, displeased. It did not truly surprise him, but it did put a damper his gratification. Given time, she would defeat this king of the forest. This was no real threat to her.

Sesshomaru leapt lightly from his perch and then skimmed along the tree tops until he was on the edge of the rough clearing made by the stone demon’s attacks. He paused, waiting until she had her back to him before stepping out of the shadows and striding toward the heart of the battle. His aura was concealed from her—saturating her senses with it served to do more than just amuse him—so perhaps she somehow heard his silent footfalls because she called out to him without having to look back, “Get back! I’ve got this.”

He smirked and answered with the ring of Bakusaiga being unsheathed. He dashed forward just as she leapt back from another swat, and he made it a point to sweep her aside as he went.

The demon lord confronted the stone beast and swelled his aura to titanic proportions. The demon reared back in reaction before its luminous eyes fixated on him. Its aura grew noticeably darker and its mouth hung open in a mockery of a grin. It recognized him.

Sesshomaru had passed through this forest a year prior on his way to investigate the claims of an unstoppable force in the abandoned Chubu region. That had turned out to be an undead ghoul that fed on the aggression of others, a being so easily slain by Tenseiga that he’d spent the next week tracking down his informants and punishing them according to their guilt. However, when he stopped here to allow Rin to fulfill her humanly needs, he had been mildly impressed by the unknown stone chimera that had shown up to challenge him. Its youki burned with the desire to defend its territory, and considering its imperviousness to youki-based attacks, he had hoped it would be a more worthy adversary given a few more decades to strengthen. He had waylaid battle then with a barrier and the beast had spent the night roaring indignantly at a distance.

Now, it hissed, “Die!”

Sesshomaru tsked.

The battle was not easy, but it was disappointingly simple. He knew ranged youki attacks were useless, but he had no want of physical strength, so when he blurred toward the beast’s face and swung Bakusaiga at those strange spiked nostrils, it had no defenses beyond the dense composition of its flesh. It was not enough. Though he had to put a considerable amount of force behind every swing, the gray rock eventually cracked and splintered before falling away.

Enraged by the shattering of its nose, it reared back on its hunches and pawed at the air. Sesshomaru could not maneuver on his cloud of youki with the same agility he had on foot, but he could dodge this thoughtless flailing. The beast then stretched open its mouth unto the point of unhinging and its aura began concentrated fiercely in the black depths. The demon lord saw the energy blast coming long before it was summoned up. Evasion was easy. He even had time to position himself in front of the demoness who stood in audience, forcing her to leap clear of the line of fire when the beam was finally unleashed.

He flew up and around then, moving to sink his sword into the joint between the creature’s arm and shoulder, but the boulders forming the arm and the ball of the joint creaked loudly as he grew near and then began to gyrate so rapidly that they blurred, threatening to crush any appendage caught in the spin. He backed off and instead attacked the trunk of the body with pure crushing force. He proceeded to demolish the beast bit by bit, avoiding the joints and crevices that could turn into deadly traps, until the stone demon was veined through the cracks and crumbling with every movement.

After a few hours of being chipped into gravel, long after its past opponents had died of exhaustion, the hulking figure finally turned to flee. It shook the earth with its desperate movements, but it was far too late. Sesshomaru kept after it, focusing in on a particularly deep crack that bisected its back. Within moments, it gave its dying screech, disassembling into lifeless boulders and creating rocky formations that would give birth to numerous folk legends among humans in thirty or forty years’ time.  

Sesshomaru banked his cloud slowly over the scattered remains of his opponent, slightly wearied, looking idly down and wondering if the battle would have been more satisfying in a century. Then he spied Fuko watching from the tree line and any regrets over plucking this particular fruit too early fled his mind. He flew back towards the female and alighted in front of her, regarding her with cool superiority and an undeniably expectant glint in his eyes.

Fuko, who usually had such an animated face, only had the slightest pout to accompany her bland expression. She leaned against a tree that had been knocked askew by the battle with her arms crossed in front of her. After a moment of staring at each other, her right ear twitched and she said, “Good job, you killed it.”

His eyes narrowed fractionally but he affected a casual air. “This Sesshomaru was merely making up for your shortcomings.”

She huffed. “Shortcomings? I could have beaten that demon.”

“And yet you did not.”

Her fingers flexed against her upper arms, claws catching against cloth. “Not because I _couldn’t_. And I didn’t have to, did I? You rushed in ahead of me.” She rolled off the tree and tried to leave, but she made it only half a step before he blocked her path. She glared up at him. “Move.”

He ignored that and regarded her with a steady glare. “I stepped in because you appeared hesitant.” She started to brush passed him, but he shot out a hand, striking the tilted tree with enough force to knock off bark as he barred her way. “Tell me,” he continued slowly, leaning in, “what held you back?”

Her eyes narrowed and her soft exhale brushed his face. “I was just keeping it from stepping into my territory.”

Sesshomaru gave a very small smile and took care to memorize the scent of her dishonesty. “Is that so?”

He heard her growl for a split second and it was his only warning. Her palm painfully flattened his nose as she smacked him away, snapping, “Get your face away from my face!”

He reflexively turned away from the pain and by the time he turned back—to gut her? To choke her to death? — she was twenty yards beyond him, having ducked under his arm.

Her ears were flattened hard against her hair and she stomped her foot as she shouted at him, “You are a mega annoying guy!” And then she was gone.

The sting in his nose was nothing at all compared to the unmitigated insult. For a long time afterward, he was frozen, staring with blank red eyes at the tilted tree which he still had a restraining hand against. He warred within himself. Any outward movement would have released the raging energies inside.

At first, there were no thoughts. With his control so close to gone and her scent so fresh in his burning nose, there were only visions of her pinned and submissive. He ached for the sound of her whimpering and the scent of her fear. His limbs burned with new strength, and he knew— _knew_ if he could just get his hands on her, he could repay her twenty-fold for the pain and degradation, make her apologize, make her submit! _Submit_ , yes! The word fired him. His fingers curled into the wood of the much abused tree and his claws began to leak dokkaso into the core. If he could just get his hands on her, he could force her. How…?

The dilemma triggered his reason and his first thought was to chase her down. She was far too quick to catch, but he knew where she was going. He would drag her out of camp, preferably by those ridiculous ears, force her to the ground somewhere and make her show her belly. But, he could not hope that she would stand still for such treatment. How could he make her, short of beating her unconscious? Not that he was adverse to the idea. Still, to arrive back at camp, red-eyed and snarling after that damned female when she was most likely already in the arms of Rin, who was now forever saying - _chan, -chan, -chan_ until the word was a clanging in his ears—no. He would not give the bitch the satisfaction of seeing how she affected him.

His next thought was to call her out. She would answer a challenge—he knew now that his first impression of her was wrong on all counts. Fuko of the North had a stubborn will to fight. If he could tap into it just long enough to lure her into a secluded area, he could attack… and violate the terms set by their first duel.

Sesshomaru cursed and yanked his claws out of the tree, which creaked and then folded in on itself. As it toppled, the trunk cracked open, releasing a cloud of rancid green smoke and revealing the deep corrosion inside. The sight and smell reminded him of the swath of trees he had felled in just the same way last night as he worked through his reaction to her turning her back on him and storming out.

Slowly, he flicked the last of the acidic poison from his claws. He had resolved not to do this again. He had shaped this plan to avoid just such an eventuality.

“And how quickly she has made you forget this,” he hissed to himself, disgusted. This, all of this, was beneath him. He reached up and stroked the mokomoko, roughly smoothing down the fur that had been standing on end, and then turned to walk back to camp. Such volatile reactions were less than what one would expect from the lord of the Western Lands, heir to the House of the Moon, a daiyoukai said to have the strength and ruthlessness to rule the world.

He continued to pet the thick white fur as he walked, breathing deeply to combat the haze of red that still lingered on the edges of his vision. Time passed slowly and he focused down on the seconds, on his footfalls, and eventually on twitter of returning birds. By the time he approached the small clearing where Jaken had set up the fire, he was back in complete control.

Ahead, he could sense the demoness was not there. The clearing was empty save for the imp and he jumped up when Sesshomaru became visible through the trees.

“Milord!” Jaken ran to him. “I’m glad you’ve returned, milord. I trust that fool rock demon is no more. Ah! What am I saying? Of course such an unworthy creature-”

“Where are the others?”

“Oh, that accursed female! She took Rin off into the woods! I tried to stop her—”

Sesshomaru moved swiftly, blurring into the trees beyond the imp where he could sense her aura. His thoughts were all at once consumed with protecting Rin, but back in the recesses he was stunned with disbelief. How had he not seen it, not even suspected, when he knew that his enemies would not hesitant to spill a child’s blood? It was suspect from the start, her shadowy history and her fixation on Rin. Of course the child was her target. Somehow, with her attitude, she had fooled him into believing in her harmlessness as easily as she had seduced Rin into believing in their friendship. Even now, he could not imagine what she would do, or what she had done in the long minutes that she had had his human pup alone in these woods.

Left far behind in the blink of an eye, poor Jaken stumbled after him, calling, “Wait! Wait! Milord, please! She took Rin to bathe! Lord Sesshomaru!”

The kappa youkai tripped over a root and fell on his face. He lay there for a long moment, wondering whether or not he should get up. Perhaps his lord would not kill him if he already appeared to be dead.

Jaken then began to weep slow, bitter tears. Playing dead had never worked before!

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Fuko sighed as she grew the wide-toothed comb through Rin’s wet, soapy hair, realizing just then that complaining about Sesshomaru to his number one fan hadn’t been such a great idea. “I don’t know, Rin-chan. Let’s just forget it.”

“We can’t forget it!” The girl whirled, flinging soap and water everywhere. Ah-Un groaned indignantly from the shore of the creek, but Rin was too caught up in her plan. “Fuko-chan, if you just show Lord Sesshomaru how nice you are and that you like him then he’ll like you back!”

“But isn’t that what I’ve been doing already?”

Rin’s hands formed fist under her chin and she gave Fuko a look of such intensity that she was taken aback. “You have to do it harder! Practice makes you better!”

“Easier said than done. Besides, I don’t really like him.”

Rin’s cheeks puffed out angrily. She looked like a furious chipmunk. “Fuko-chan! Don’t say that! Practice!”

Her ears drooped. Who knew a naked girl child could be so intimidating? “What, practice liking him?” Fuko sighed again, sitting down in the water and handing Rin the comb. “And how do I do that? Ow.”

“Sorry.” Rin didn’t sound very sorry, but she did stop combing her hair so roughly. “Just think of all the good things about Lord Sesshomaru! Like—his hair.”

“His hair?”

“Yes! He has the longest, prettiest, softest, most beautiful—”

“Most pale.”

“Yeah!” She patted Fuko on the head in encouragement.

“He’s pale all over, actually,” Fuko continued.

“Um, yeah.”

“Like a ghost.”

“Um.”

“Like a creepy, suck-your-soul-out specter from Spooksville— Ow!”

“Practice harder!”

Rin proceeded to comb Fuko’s hair very roughly, even her ears, which she had been told in the past didn’t need to be combed at all.

“Ow, ow, ow!” Fuko finally pulled away, covering her ears protectively. “You act a lot like your father sometimes, you know that!?”

Rin relented immediately. “My… my father? What do you mean, Fuko-chan?”

“Your Lord Sesshomaru gets especially mean when he doesn’t get his way. That’s not a very attractive trait, Rin-chan.” Fuko turned to see the little girl clutching the comb closely to her chest.

“Lord Sesshomaru isn’t my father…,” she mumbled.

“Oh,” The look on her face was oddly serious and Fuko paused before venturing hesitantly, “He’s like your father.”

“But he’s not.”

“Okay.” Fuko took her wrist and pulled her down gently so that she sat in the water as well, and then she took the comb from her hand. “Here, let me finish your hair.” After a little while of combing, she asked, “Do you want him to be your father?”

“Yes.” Rin’s answer was decisively quick, but then she continued more slowly, “He can’t be, though.”

“If he adopted you—”

Rin shook her head quickly. “I get in the way too much. I’m too slow. If I was a demon like Lord Sesshomaru, then maybe I could be his daughter. But Rin is just Rin.” There was a pause and Fuko was about to cut in, to tell her she was wrong, but the girl continued, “I still try very hard! Rin can keep up better all the time and she does everything Lord Sesshomaru says so she doesn’t get in his way. So _I_ don’t get in his way.” Rin looked over her shoulder at the demoness and with sparkling eyes finished earnestly, “I will stay by milord’s side forever, even if I can’t be his daughter.”

Fuko regarded the little girl tearfully. “Ah! Rin-chan! Your devotion has inspired me!”

The demoness shot to her feet, splashing water into her companion’s face. “I will give Lord Sesshomaru another chance! One who inspires such devotion must have _some_ redeeming qualities!” She pumped one resolute fist into the sky and declared to the invisible stars, “I, Fuko of the North, Guardian of Coh, founder of the Ii-Inu ryu, reluctant deity of the Order of the Disciples, and so on, hereby vow to one day meet Sesshomaru, demon lord of the Western Lands, on the twilight plains of eternity with mutual respect and admiration!”

Though she understood almost nothing about that declaration, Rin jumped to her feet, threw two handfuls of water into the air, and shouted, “Banzai!”

This was how Sesshomaru found them.

Sesshomaru, on his part, realized almost one entire second before he reached the stream that Fuko was not torturing Rin. It was momentum that propelled him to the shore, but he pulled up short just out of the tree line. It took a fraction of a second to process what he saw, and then a couple seconds after that to appreciate it, and then one more second to realize the implications of staring. He was already turning away when Fuko started throwing rocks.

Fuko, on her part, had at first the same reaction as Rin. After an instant of processing, they both sat down. The water, which came up to Rin’s armpits, only reached the bottom of Fuko’s breasts. It was instinct, then, that had Fuko reaching into the bed of the creek and hauling up stones the size of squirrels to fling at Sesshomaru’s face. There was almost no anger at all behind this act.

As a result, Sesshomaru escaped with one knot on the back of his head and only a dozen welts on his back.

When the sounds of his passage faded in the distance and the shrapnel from the stones that missed him stopped falling to the ground, Fuko looked down at Rin with ears drooping guiltily. The little girl was giving her the chipmunk look again.

“Fuko-chan! You need more practice!”

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**Until next time!**

**Chapter 8: Rivals**


	8. Rivals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miroku visits Edo and Fuko declares her rivalry with Sesshomaru!

**Hi!**

**Also, I don’t own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko - priestess. Hanyou - half-demon. Inu - dog. Ookami - wolf. Neko - cat. Ryu - dragon. Kitsune - fox. Youkai - demon. Youki - demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai - great demon. Moko moko - Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa - toad. Dokkaso - Sesshomaru's poison. Hime - princess. Kami - gods. Oni – ogre/troll demons. Baka - idiot.

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**Chapter 8: Rivals**

Shippo the young fox demon bounded down the main road in Edo in the late afternoon, raising a small plume of dust in his wake. The more skittish of the humans in the village shrank from his show of demonic speed, but he couldn’t be bothered to hold back right now. He ran down the road to the outskirts of the village, directly up the side of the priestess Kaede’s hut, and then onto her wood-paneled roof.

He moved quickly and silently across the wood, smirking to himself. The patter of his feet wouldn’t give him away, nor would his youki. The little fox had taken his stealth training very seriously in the past weeks and he had been presented with the perfect opportunity to test out his new skills.

Voices below him swelled into laughter and he shifted into a belly crawl on his approach to the opposite edge of the roof. The exchange carried on.

“Well, they certainly are a hand full. That’s partly the reason I’m here.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, I was hoping Inuyasha would be around.”

“He would hardly make a good baby sitter.”

They laughed again.

“No, I don’t think so either. It’s the demon exterminating I need his help with.” There was a pause and the sound of tea being sipped. Shippo could smell the tea leaves and knew the cups were freshly brewed. It was plain to him that their visitor, while unexpected, was warmly received. He wanted to greet him properly too, but first…

There was a sigh. “I do wonder where he gets off to. I know it must seem to him that we only think of him in times of trouble, but—”

“Hush. Inuyasha knows what good friends you and Sango are. The boy may seem thick, but he knows that at least. He understands the strain you all are putting on yourselves, rebuilding a village and starting a family all at once.”

There was a low chuckle. “It wasn’t as if we planned it that way.”

Miroku the Buddhist monk sat on Kaede’s porch, arms and legs crossed, a modest cup of tea cradled in one hand. Though the days of constant battle were behind him, in the past like the accursed wind tunnel that once ruled his right hand, he still carried his deadly shakujo against his shoulder. He also sported a scrape across his left cheek, a wound from a recent exorcism. He looked pensively toward the still forest beyond the village, thinking of his troubled friend and his struggle with heart break.

“Do not dwell on it so, monk.” Kaede placed her cup down in front of her. “Inuyasha will return when he is ready.”

Miroku closed his eyes and nodded once. “Of course.” But, slowly, his eyes opened and fell on those empty trees again. “Kohaku needed time as well, but even with his injured spirit, he has returned to us.”  

The old woman merely hummed and for a moment the two sat looking into the trees.

Shippo crouched up on the roof, no longer so excited about being able to eavesdrop on his friends. It was a credit to his training that his sadness did not lapse his focus and give him away. _Inuyasha, you jerk,_ he thought, biting his lip. _Baka. Everyone misses you._

“So,” Miroku suddenly said, “how have things been here in Edo? In need of any exterminating services? As I’ve said before, we’ll give you a discount.”

Kaede chuckled softly. “I’m afraid we’ve had no such problems in a long while, thank the kami. Still trying to drum up business?”

“It _is_ difficult to pin down a job tough enough to challenge our recruits but not tough enough to maim them. Sango does believe in on-the-job training, after all. It’s just too bad she’s not in condition to help teach.” He shifted, causing the rings of his staff to jingle. “It really helps weed out the ones who aren’t suited to fight, besides.”

“Perhaps it is working too well in that respect.”

“I wouldn’t say that exactly. Our numbers only dropped off so sharply because over half of the trainees were just dissatisfied farmers. Now that we’re down to the tenacious ones, we’ll see some progress. And many of those who gave up demon slaying are settling in the village in other capacities. Did you know the thin fellow we picked up last year was a potter’s son? He’s set up a kiln and is taking work orders now that he’s realized he’s not cut out for battle.”

“Tsujitani? I knew the lad had promise. Just not on the battle field.”

 They chatted a while longer about the particulars and hardships Miroku and Sango faced in rebuilding and repopulating the demon exterminator village, but then their discussion slipped into animated retellings of Miroku’s children’s every development and achievement. After the happy father recounted a fifth incident in which both girls learned some new behavior at exactly the same time, Miroku noticed the sun setting.

“Say, where is Shippo?”

At this, Shippo started awake from his light snooze. He could never listen when Miroku lapsed into baby stories for long. Last time he saw him, all the monk could talk about was the color of infant poop.

“Hm. It is very likely that the boy is off training.”

“Training? At that fox school?”

“No, not lately. He has received tutoring here in the village. We’ve had a youkai visitor since we saw you last.”

Miroku frowned and shifted. “No trouble, I assume?”

“Not at all. A bit odd, perhaps, but no trouble.”

Smirking, Shippo eased toward the edge of the roof and peeked down. His tail wiggled happily at the sight of the familiar monk, but he quelled this reaction and eased back on his haunches. When Miroku turned his head to look into the hut where Kaede was stirring a stew over the fire, Shippo sprang forward, flipping off the roof.

Miroku turned back and yelped when he found Shippo’s face inches from his. “Ah!” He lifted his weapon reflexively and then, recognizing the kitsune, guiltily lowered it. “Shippo! You’ve, ah, grown!”

The young fox laughed, not having noticed how the monk gripped his staff. “Yep! Grown well enough to sneak up on you!”

Miroku laughed as well. “So you have.”

The kit nodded proudly. “All thanks to Fuko.”

“What’s that?”

“The youkai visitor I just spoke of.” Kaede brought forth bowls of stew looked askance at the two of them. “Have you boys cleansed your hands?”

After everyone was prepared and dinner was handed out, the three of them settled in and ate. Shippo finished first and began telling the monk about his friend the dog demoness, his tail wiggling as he spoke.

Miroku listened, interest and misgivings growing in equal proportions though he only expressed his interest to the boy. He seemed… charmed. Shippo’s enthusiastic description, verified by Kaede’s silent nods, sketched a very powerful, very out of place youkai.

He could not help but wonder what a dog demoness was doing so far from her clan. When he asked if she had been looking for Inuyasha, Shippo explained that she was looking, but not for their friend specifically. That just raised the monk’s suspicions. What could drive any demon to enter a human village in search of aid? Was she still in the area, looking?

“I wish I could have met this demon,” Miroku murmured, “if only to know what she looked like.”

“Oh!” Shippo suddenly jumped up and went over to a small chest in the corner of the hut. “I drew a picture!”

When he returned to the fireside, he passed over a piece of rice paper. The portrait was surprisingly realistic. The young demoness was small but long-legged with lightly curling hair that pooled on the roof on which she sat, cross-legged. Two animalistic ears, large and distinctly canine, stood erect atop her head. The artist placed a lot of care and attention on each claw that tipped her fingers. Her wide, cheerful smile revealed fangs. The eyes were most striking, though this could have been because they were the only part of the drawing that had been colored. They were joyful and intensely green.

 “I’ve not seen this before.” Kaede had moved to put away their empty bowls but now leaned over Miroku’s shoulder for a closer look. “It is a fine likeness.” Squinting, the old woman leaned forward a little more. “Though, perhaps you made her face narrower.”

“I was just about to say,” Miroku lifted his brows and looked slyly over the paper at Shippo, “she looks more like a fox than a dog.”

“W-what?” Shippo snatched the paper back and looked at it for a moment before blushing. “Maybe she does. I didn’t mean to make her look different.”

The monk hummed. “Perchance it was just wishful thinking.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!?”

“Only that your heart might be coloring your memories.”

“What!?”

“I’m just saying that she might be a bit too old for you, my lad.”

Shippo sputtered helplessly, trying to explain. Fuko was just his friend!

“Don’t tease the boy so,” Kaede admonished. “If he gets anymore tongue-tied, he might choke.”

 Shippo glared at them and then huffily went to put his picture away.

Miroku leaned toward Kaede and asked, “Do you think Shippo’s demoness will return?”

“She said she would. Shippo is to send for her when Inuyasha returns.”

The monk hummed, again thinking of his misgivings and the worries he had as a new father and the some-what inexperienced leader of a rag-tag band of demon exterminators. He sighed before replying, “A lot seems to hinge on Inuyasha’s return.”

Kaede nodded sagely. “Let us hope it is a happy occasion.”

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

 “Hey,” Fuko stopped and waited until the demon lord stopped walking and turned toward her. “I have something to say to you.”

He turned away. “Not here.”

She blinked. “What? Why not?”

Sesshomaru leapt into the darkness of the night, aware that the demoness would be at his heels, intent on stopping him. He would not let her succeed.

 “Wait!” Almost as if he were not running at all, she darted forward and then kept pace beside him, shouting to be heard over the winds of their passage. “Let me just tell you something!”

 He glanced at her and found that she was looking at him, not ahead. Her ears were pinned back, dark hair flying, and her clothes plastered to her front. He thought of the creek, and then of the rocks, and after no more than a second of consideration, he varied his course slightly, moving to run between two closely set trees. She evaded by splitting off, not even seeming to notice his deliberate positioning. He expected this, however. She would not fall for so simple a maneuver.

“Just let me speak! Sesshomaru!”

He turned sharply, rebounded off a cliff face, and for a second she fell behind, but then she was beside him again.  

“Would you stop?! Please? Where are you going!?”

When she tried to push him off his stride, he shrugged her off. When she tried to grab his arm, he dragged her along. The more she tried to slow him, the more frustrated she became until she began cursing at him. He had never heard such language from her before—it was a clear sign of her lost composure. Sesshomaru kept his eyes on the path ahead, working to suppress a smile.

At a certain point in his youth, the young prince of the western lands had surpassed the strongest of his father’s men in strength and speed. When he had discovered that the personal guards of the House of the Moon could no longer keep up with him, he began to resent them. He had decided to travel alone from then on. To punctuate his decision, he had purposefully run his body guards into the ground on the night of a clan wide moon hunt, proving that they were so inferior that they were unneeded and worse, a burden.

Now, with his feet planting solidly in damp earth, his legs pumping smoothly, and his hair blown back like a silver stream, the demon lord experienced the same sense of superiority he felt during that decisive adolescent run. Fuko of the North was faster than him, yes, but she could not stop him with anything short of deadly force. Watching her struggle to do so almost made him laugh. Did she not realize he was by far the stronger of the two of them?

“Stop, dammit!” she snapped.

He did. For an instant. She shot passed him and then he darted toward the north through a corpse of tall pines. She managed to return to his elbow just as he burst through the other side of the strand of trees into a sparse stretch of land. The air still reeked of a month’s old forest fire.

“What the hell is wrong with you?! I’m trying to tell you something! This is important!”

Sesshomaru stretched his legs, running flat out, ignoring her every attempt to hinder or distract him. Beyond the blackened forest, which went on for miles, a low flourishing shrub land appeared like a flash of light, only to be superseded by jagged, mountainous cliffs. Just as he was again changing direction to throw her off, she recklessly darted into his path in an attempt to trip him. She was trampled, as would be anyone foolish enough to throw themselves under his feet. Her yelp faded away behind him, but it was drowned out by her curses an instant later as she caught up and they continued to run. Upon reaching a shallow lake, he again tested her agility by turning at the last instant to skirt the edge of the water, and then turning just as quickly to run across the surface. There was a splash, and then a snarl, but she appeared at his elbow again as he reached the opposite shore.  

She continued to demand that he stop as he led her along the curving path of a creek, up a sheer cliff-face, down the other side, and then up through the tree tops of yet another pine grove. She cursed, growled, and winged pinecones at his back, but he gloated silently for he knew what was ahead. The thick canopy concealed another cliff, and when he took the final leap off the last branch before it, youki was already condensing under his feet. He burst into starlight and velvet sky, buoyant and victorious.

She, who had only been a fraction of a second behind, squeaked like a pup as her feet pedaled uselessly in the air. Then she disappeared.

In the time between perceivable moments, just before this disappearance, Fuko stepped on a shard of white light. Really, it only appeared that way. The angle from which Sesshomaru observed her had him in line with sliver of moon, putting her in his shadow. Her relative darkness compared to the air around her highlighted the small burst of energy that was released under her foot when she bought it down with such speed and strength that it knocked lightening out of the air. The resulting force changed her trajectory drastically.

Sesshomaru turned his head to follow the movement that he could only guess at from this subconsciously perceived flash of lightening. As it had many times before, his subconscious served him well. He saw her a half mile in the distance, falling into the canopy of the forest below.

He hovered for a moment, reluctantly impressed, before he began to drift in that direction. She was _much_ faster than him. She held back in certain ways when they fought, he realized. But, that did not change anything. He had suspected she was holding back. He held back as well. This realization did bring to his mind another reason to fulfill to the utmost his current plans. Once she was under his power, she could be put to work training the soldiers of the West to match her awesome speed and fighting prowess. He looked forward to having armies that might move as she did.

As Sesshomaru felt for her, lightly probing the forest for her aura, the danger of letting her out of his sight occurred to him. There were obvious downsides to having a military asset that could so easily become lost. He assumed that she would not have the presence of mind to stay where had she landed. If she moved to look for him in the wrong direction, it might be hours or even days before he could find her.

When he reached the half-mile mark without sensing her, he had to suppress a frustrated growl. The first thing he invested in after gaining her allegiance would be some means of tracking her whereabouts.

He glided down below the tree tops, taking in the details of his surroundings with all his senses. Her scent was on the breeze. As he began to inspect the ground for her tracks, a sudden eruption of power washed the area.

A bolt of youki flashed by him, exploding on the ground directly in his path.

He tensed and just barely kept from leaping backward, then he turned. She stood in the shade of a low fern. Her face was hard and her eyes were sharp as she regarded him. Her hand gripped the shaft of her spear so fiercely that the white of her tendons showed through the skin.

“Okay.” Her grip shifted tellingly on the weapon. “You’ve dragged me all the way out here. I can’t find my way back. That’s what you wanted, right? So what are you planning to do now?”

Sesshomaru smirked as he stepped forward. He let his hand slide from the pommel of his sword. “You have finally figured it out, then?”

 “I admit it took me longer than it should have, but I thought we were passed all this deception.”

“Passed deception? Odd that you should say that. Then, you deny clandestinely weaving spells around the Staff of Two Heads?”

“If you’re referring to the _one_ magic mark on Jaken’s staff, it only helps keep me with the group. I didn’t think it was worth mentioning.”

“A lie of omission is a lie.”

“Whatever! I wouldn’t call it deception, but since you’re apparently hyper sensitive about everything, I’ll give you that.” His eyes narrowed dangerously at her tone but she continued undaunted, “I’ll ask again. You’ve lured me out here, now what?”

 “Now you tell me what I want to know.”

 She blinked slowly and derisively. “…Is that what this is all about? I wouldn’t answer all your stupid questions so you concocted this convoluted scheme to—what? Make it so I can’t leave until you’re satisfied?”

Sesshomaru did not appreciate her tone or her manner. She gave him a look of utter aggravation, as if he had interrupted her day with trivial concerns. Her attempt to shame him into backing down was useless. He had removed her avenues of escape and the dynamic between them was now vitally changed. “If you wish to continue on to the West from here, that is exactly what you have to do.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You swore on your honor—”

“That I would deliver you to the West at my earliest convince.” He stepped forward. “I find bringing unknown factions to the seat of my house to be rather inconvenient.”

“That wasn’t the deal.”

“It is now.” He stepped forward again. “Why such reticence?”

“I’ve told you before. I’ve got nothing to hide.”

“I will be the judge of that.”

“And I’ve said before that I’ll answer your questions as soon as you start answering mine.”

“I hardly think you are in a position to make that demand.”

She glared for a long moment. “So, you won’t compromise?”

He snorted. “This one does not ‘compromise’.”

She bowed her head and her long bangs fell forward to shadow her eyes. Her power began to swell, rustling the branches of the trees overhead. There were undertones of a growl in her voice as she said, “I thought that’s what you’d say.”

Sesshomaru shifted into a more battle-ready stance, smiling subtly.

Fuko glanced up, revealing green eyes that sparkled with intensity. “You know, I thought we could be friends, even before I promised Rin. But I could never be friends with a stuck-up frost golem like you.” She drove her spear into the ground at her side. “That’s what I came out here to tell you.”

Sesshomaru tensed as her power rose around him and had to carefully modulated his own natural response. He could feel her anger rippling along his skin, but he would not give in to it. When she attacked him, he would need to keep his focus on subduing her without undue bloodshed.

“Friendship is beyond us,” she continued.  In one movement, she flung off her obi and outer kimono. “I came out here to declare our rivalry!”

_What?_ Around him the air suddenly burned and crackled with her power, setting the fur of his mokomoko in end. Almost against his will, his youki flexed and swelled, rising to protect him. His teeth began to ache and he knew his beast was rising as well. Damn it, was she trying to make him transform? “What is the meaning of this?”

She pointed at him and her words echoed throughout the forest. “As your eternal rival, I vow to make you acknowledge my parity, and to that end, I challenge you to a sparring match!” She fell smoothly into the Ii-Kitsune beginning stance. “Prepare yourself! What came before was child’s play.”

Sesshomaru slowly raised a brow at this turn of events but began removing his armor nonetheless. This was not the outright attack he had been expecting, but this would come out in his favor just as well. As he dropped his swords, he said, “So be it.”

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Jaken sat next to the campfire, surrounded by crumpled herbs, torn spell tags, and the ashes of burnt charms. After surveying the waste of his centuries worth of knowledge, he glanced worriedly up at the moon. It was not yet directly overhead, but it would be soon and he still sat with the Staff of Two Heads lying across his knees, no closer to completing his mission. He had honestly thought it would be simple when Lord Sesshomaru gave him this important task. He was a spell master, after all. It was such a little, innocuous mark left by such a laughable demoness. How was he to know that every trick he knew would fail to remove it? Short of destroying the staff, he was running out of options. As the sliver of moon inched closer and closer to the zenith of its nightly course, he wanted to throw up his hands and cry.

Instead, the kappa youkai bit back tears and again bowed his head over the staff focusing on the odd kanji-like symbol etched into the wood. There had to be some trick, some simple thing he was missing. There was no way that stupid girl had permanently marked such a fine weapon.

As he sat in intense contemplation, he could feel his time slipping away like sand pouring through a sieve. Finally, he gave a furious shout. “She won’t get the best of me!” Jaken pushed the staff to the ground and jumped to his feet. “I’ll use my most powerful spell!”

He whipped a fine-pointed brush and a small ink stone from the pockets in his robes and quickly ground some ink. Then he took out his ultimate charm, an ornate black and gold silk scroll he kept in his breast pocket. The back was inlaid with a profusion of power symbols, but the inside was blank. It was precious, a piece that took decades to craft from demon worm silk and the husks of shed dragon skins. He had only ever seen one of its kind, which was the one he possessed. Jaken focus his youki, clamping his beak and clenching his fist around the brush. His bulbous yellow eyes began to glow.

Behind him, Ah-Un stirred and lifted his heads. He would have stood if Rin weren’t resting against his belly. It was unnerving for the beast to see Jaken summoning any of his natural power. It happened so rarely.

In three bold strokes, Jaken wrote ‘cleanse’ on the small scroll. There was a hum of power and the kanji glowed briefly before the spell settled.

 “I did it!” He took up his staff again. “Alright. I’ve given it everything I have. This has to work.” Dramatically, he held the open scroll above his head. “I will not let my lord down!”

The imp forcefully slapped his spell on the homing mark. As soon as the silk scroll made contact with the staff, the two faces, the Old Man and the Beauty, opened their mouths and shrieked. Jaken screamed as well, jumping back. The shrieking staff remained upright, suspended by a web of crackling demon energy. 

Behind him, Ah-Un let out a garbled wail. Rin woke up only to scream as well at the hair-raising sight.

After a few loud seconds, the crackling energy around the staff abated and then it clattered quietly to the ground.

The three (four) remaining screams trailed off. Hesitantly, Jaken sidled up to the inert staff and nudged it with his foot. What remained of the scroll promptly disintegrated, leaving behind bare, unblemished wood where the strange mark once was.

Jaken gave a short, sharp laugh, looked up at the moon, and then laughed again. He began to laugh hysterically, and then he lapsed into weeping, thinking of all he would have to do to replace that scroll.

Rin clutched Ah-Un’s side, watching her care-taker cry. “Ah-Un? Did Master Jaken break his staff?”

The dragon beast grunted and Jaken cried harder.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

The raging battle between the two inu youkai came to a grinding halt when Sesshomaru managed to reverse an arm lock and sweep Fuko off her feet, only to land atop her when she brought her legs around and buckled his knees. This was a mistake on her part.

All at once, the Western lord seemed to constrict around her like a boa and she found herself playing the part of the helpless mouse. Sesshomaru was well-trained in grappling. It was taught by rote to pups of the House of the Moon before they could even stand, and though it was decidedly undignified, he would use whatever advantage. Fuko knew very little about full body grappling as a martial art and had never progressed beyond gentle, friendly tussling with much weaker playmates. She had to resist using her claws and teeth to break away.

She twisted in his grip, twisted violently enough to drive them both up to their knees, her back pressed against his chest, one of his arms locked around her throat. The other kept her arms pined to her sides and his legs were positioned exactly to keep her from moving hers at all. She continued to twist and wrench her body, almost breaking away dozens of times, but he slowly pressed her to the ground again as her strength waned. They had been after each other for hours, pounding away at each other’s guard, and when that broke, each other’s bodies. They were both spotted with bruises, panting with fatigue, and burning with pent up youki.

If she had thought being surrounded by his aura was like a smothering blanket, then being actually smothered by his physical body was simply some fresh hell. His warm breath saturated her hair and his sweat smeared onto her skin. They were both sweaty, but having him pressed to her point for point felt like being doused in melted wax. It was sweltering, a hot, moist trap, and he was _heavy_ , like, _impossibly_ heavy. She could lift tons, toss trolls around like rag dolls, but she couldn’t seem to move with this guy on her back.

She did not notice that all her writhing was pushing her kosode further and further up her legs, but Sesshomaru could not help but notice. Quite against his will, his cock began to harden. The warmth of her body grew more intense as less fabric came between them and she ground her soft rump into his crotch continuously as he fought to keep her underneath him. His confining arms were wrapped around her, revealing to his touch the contours of her body that his eyes had discovered just hours ago. Her limbs trembled with strained as she fought against him and he had to flex mightily to battle her strength, but it was this tender quaking that was making it difficult to focus on holding her more than anything. She nearly escaped more than once because of his distraction, but at the last second he would shift to correct his opening. It galled him to have to fight her and his own growing arousal.

Even running out of air, Fuko continued to struggle for a long while. It was futile, however. Her every wiggle was followed closely by his countering movement and the sensations this provided only motivated Sesshomaru to tighten his hold. He managed to shift his grip well enough to move one hand onto her belly, which he caressed lightly. If she submitted to him now, he would reward her, he decided. If she went limp for him, he would give her a taste of the pleasure so many demonesses coveted.

But her struggle did not abate. Could she not scent his arousal? Had she no idea of his intentions? He curled his fingers into her side, kneading, determined that she would realize the benefits of surrender. His hand was inching downward when, finally, her movement trailed off into the faintest squirming. This was not enough for him. After so hard a battle, he desired to hear the words. Carefully, he eased the pressure off of her throat.

“Submit,” he ordered, and the word came out hard and raspy.

She coughed and then sucked in a quick breath. “No.”

Displeased, Sesshomaru growled low in her ear.

Fuko snarled back ferociously.

Bitch! But, oddly enough, her audacious behavior only served to arouse him further. He gripped her tighter as his hips arched forward reflexively, grinding his body against hers.

Then he froze, coming back to himself as he took in her scent. Fucking her had always been a vague consideration in the back of his mind and now he wanted her fiercely enough to forgive her many, many transgressions long enough to satisfy himself. The demon lord was not one to deny himself something that he wanted. But, he would not force himself on her. His own scent was thick with lust, but it was not quite strong enough to mask the fact that no such musk was coming from her.

She did not want him. But how could this be? Was she really so unaffected by him?

She began to struggle again, growling, “Why are you so heavy?”

Now doubly displeased, he leaned forward and bit her ear.

“Ow, OW! What the hell?! That’s cheating! Let go! OW! I concede! Uncle! Get the hell off me!”

Sesshomaru loosened his grip on her reluctantly, but did not unclench his jaw. He was… surprised at himself. Ear biting was hardly the most dignified way to cow someone, but then, it was apparently highly effective with her.

He shifted into a sitting position and she was dragged half into his lap. She whined, gingerly pulling away from him, but not getting far with her ear still crumpled in his mouth.

“Let go let go let go let go!”

He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her against him until she sat between his legs. Only then did he release her ear from between his teeth.

Fuko of the North leapt away from him then, the very instant she was able, and she landed some five yards away. Sesshomaru did not chase her, deciding instead to allow them both a moment to collect themselves. He could admit that he was a bit tired and a bit… agitated. His arms, legs, and loins still pulsed with kinetic heat. Slowly, he picked sweat-soaked cloth away from the skin of his stomach, curling his lip in distaste. He loosed just enough of his power to burn away the dirt and dry his clothes, and in doing so became aware of various aches and pains that would heal within the next couple hours. A hot bath would have been preferable to this quick method of cleaning himself.

Across from him, a ball of fox fire appeared at Fuko’s feet and began to travel upwards, cleansing her. He watched, frowning slightly. Her head was bowed, the crown exposed to him with her soft ears laid back. The whorl in her hair went subtly clockwise. Her posture was defensive, curled in shoulders, arms tucked around her knees which were pressed to her chest, but it could also be read as submissive. She had avoided saying the words before, but perhaps…?  

Just as he began to edge closer, she glanced up. “I owe you a penalty. One favor.”

He leaned back slightly, working decipher this sudden statement.

She looked away sharply and clicked her tongue. “Though biting is _cheating,_ I wasn’t getting out of that hold. To lose immediately after declaring rivalry, it’s shameful. I’m… surprised. I’m not where I thought I was as a fighter. But I will focus and learn from this.” She met his eyes again, glaring. “Don’t underestimate me. I won’t lose next time.”

 No, that posture wasn’t submissive at all. “Hn.”

She seemed to deflate and her ears drooped further. “Well, what do you want?”

Eyes on her downcast head, he brushed the back of his hand over his lips. “What will you give me?”

Her gaze returned to him, wary. “It’s a penalty, not a debt. Be reasonable.”

He curled his lip, again not appreciating her tone. Sesshomaru had very little experience with rejection, but he knew enough to see it looming. She was not likely to rut with him willingly this night. No matter. He turned his mind toward satisfying his original goals, confident that he could seduce her at another, less tense time. “You will tell this one what you are after and why you are after it.”

“Really? That’s what you want?” She snorted and unfurled herself. “You’re so single-minded.”

He glared silently, waiting for her to comply. Instead, she began undoing the clasps on her boots. He refrained from asking why she did this and only watched with mounting interest as she unfastened one manner of clasp only to reveal another, buckles and then buttons, and then interlocking metal teeth under that. Finally, she untied two sets of laces and pulled her shoes off one after another.

Her feet were streaked with demonic marks, colored with the same blue that decorated her cheeks. When she had been naked before him, he had absently noticed that she had no marks on the rest of her body. The multitude here explained that. The sight was unnerving.

He had been taught by his earliest tutors that the marks daiyoukai possessed were both indicators of power and points of channeling. They were gradually dispersed throughout the body to balance the four humors of the soul. These were a natural coloration that emerged as one came of age. Though the hands and head were most used to channel, too much youki moving through any one part of the body would damage one irreparably. There were only a few processes that could alter the appearance or locations of the marks, all of them being extremely complex and many of them dangerous. To have so many in one place… Was it a consequence of some spell that enhanced her speed? Was this then a factor in the strange formation of her aura?

“What have you done to yourself?” he demanded.

Fuko glanced up, blinking at his stern tone. “What do you mean?”

Her surprise seemed genuine and her scent held no hint of dishonesty. He stared for a moment, silent, and then his eyes widened slightly. “Your marks are naturally occurring.”

She laid her hands over the tops of her feet, feeling self-conscious. “Aren’t yours?”

“Yes.” He snorted, disconcerted by this revelation but unwilling to admit it. “Continue with your display.”

“Wait, your marks showed up as you got older, right? Mine started when—”

“Get on with it.”

She glowered for a few seconds before folding her legs into a lotus position, revealing the pink soles of her feet. “This is what I was trying to show you, you jerk.”

She brushed her finger tips over one sole and then the other and black marks appeared as if drawn up from under the skin. They were strings of minutely written kanji, crisscrossing, radiating outward from certain points like spider webs.

If he had not just discerned that her demonic marks were natural, he would have assumed this was the perverse spell had altered them so radically. The longer he stared at the bottom of her feet, the more it appeared the kanji were moving, crawling in a slow procession down the lines. He nodded grimly and looked at her, expecting her to be watching his reaction, but he found that she was focused elsewhere.

Fuko sat with her arms crossed and she gazed down at her feet in deep contemplation, eyes tracing each character with meticulous care. “It’s a curse meant to immobilize. Forever. I put it on myself.” She looked up at him from under her eyelashes then. “It doesn’t work as intended on me, obviously. I have to repair it every so often because my body fights it.” She shifted, resting her chin on the heel of one hand as she looked again at her cursed feet. “I discovered this spell over a century ago. I’ve been tinkering with it for years. I’ve improved it a few times, but I just don’t think it’s enough. It _is_ the best thing I’ve found so far to keep me in one place, but it doesn’t work perfectly and it doesn’t work all the time. Even now, I could go hunting and wind up on the next continent. That’s why I need the homing mark on Jaken’s staff.”

“You’re probably wondering how I get lost so easily, but I can’t tell you. I don’t know. Ever since I could take a human shape, I’ve been wandering off. My sense of direction… I can’t even read a map accurately. Compasses lie to me. With the help of others, I’ve learned that it has to have something to do with my youki. It must be something I’m doing unconsciously. That’s the reason I’ve been looking for other dog demons. They must have methods for controlling this—I don’t know what to even call it. A problem, for sure.”

Her eyes drifted up to him with the same look of quiet contemplation. “You seem very different from me. I think we must be different breeds of dog. It’s disappointing, but I can’t give up. I still need to investigate the Western Lands. Someone might have heard of my people. There could be records. I don’t know what I’m looking for specifically. Just… answers.”

They stared at each other for a long moment.

“Is that good enough?” she asked.

Sesshomaru tried to imagine the reality of her situation. Away from the guidance of her parents, learning by trial and error, taking up with whomever or whatever could teach her more. Constant involuntary wandering. It was obvious to him now why her methods and attitudes were so jumbled, but the results were undeniable. In few years than his, she had overcome all these disadvantages and reached a comparable power. Her dam and sire must have been powerful. It was a wonder that he recognized nothing about her, but no matter her true affiliations, whether they were some lost dog clan or some little-known tribe on the continent, he would have her.

Fuko stared, looking closely for some reaction from him, and so she saw the exact moment his mentality shifted. She drew back unconsciously and the hairs on the back of her neck lifted. _Why is he looking at me like that all of a sudden?_

Sesshomaru noticed this minute withdrawal and his mind immediately shifted to correcting the behavior. She could not be allowed to withdraw from him in any way any longer. She would be a great asset but also an unreliable force until her wanderlust was controlled. He needed some way to tie her to him. A leash, perhaps.

Fuko’s danger sense tingled warningly at the sight of his small smile. She leapt back from him five more feet in an instant. “Hey listen, you! I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I’ll have none of it!” He continued to look at her with that eerie intensity. She growled, puffing up her chest and swelling her aura. “I may have lost this time but the deal still stands! You swore on your honor, or have you forgotten?”

His amusement was gone as quickly as it had struck. He glared at her for a moment before standing and moving toward his armaments. With his leash, he would also need a muzzle.

Fuko remained tensed for a few moments and then slowly relaxed her guard, a little surprised at herself. Why had she been so sure he was going to leap at her, and even then, why had it raised her hackles so? Well, whatever the reason, she was sure the dog was planning something.

It didn’t matter what. Now that he knew how hopeless she was at wrestling, he would definitely try for it next time they fought, but no way, _no way_ would she let him beat her again. At least, not that way. Being held down like that, it was just… intolerable! Something violent and animalistic in her wanted to bite him, to draw blood for trapping her. But she squashed that feeling flat. Things didn’t need to escalate any further, not in that direction. This guy really got under her skin but letting her anger get the best of her is what lead her to this moment.

As she turned and went over to her clothes which were hung on the point of her weapon, Fuko began to strategize. _Just you wait, jerk-face. I’ll show you._

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

“Jaken.”

The imp grinned, jumped to his feet, and ran over to his lord who had appeared on the edge of the camp. That female trailed behind him. Jaken smirked at her as he spoke, “Lord Sesshomaru! I have carried out your orders, milord.”

The stupid female blinked at him, probably furious that he had defeated her little spell.

Sesshomaru held out his hand and Jaken handed over his staff immediately, knowing there was no lasting damage from his ultimate scroll. He’d spent all morning making sure the weapon was in good working order. He continued to gloat silently as his lord inspected it.

“Hn.” Sesshomaru turned slightly, passed the staff to Fuko, and then walked away.

She looked after him for a long moment, not sure how to take this gesture. He wanted her to put the homing mark back. Was he being nice? No, she decided. It just in his best interest to make sure she didn’t get lost. Huffing quietly, she ran her thumb over the wood of the staff, leaving behind the same symbol as before.

“Hey, Sesshomaru.” When he glanced back at her, she bared her teeth at him in a parody of a smile. “I’m not going to lose tomorrow, so get ready!”

With that, she tossed the staff back at the dumbfounded kappa and walked over to the still sleeping Rin. Sesshomaru’s heated gaze followed her all the way.      

— _ — _ —_ —_ —_ —_ —_ —

**Next, the exciting conclusion! (not really.)**

**Chapter 9: Sesshomaru, Too Hot To Handle!**

 


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